The Wayward Future
by Resentment
Summary: Klaus is in Tyler's body now, and Caroline can't handle this. Does she attempt to understand her feelings for him, or eschew Klaus with a firm hand? How can she even get the chance to think about it when all hell is breaking loose in Mystic Falls?
1. Strength

Hey everyone! I am writing again and I have a lovely little story for you based on Season 4 of the Vampire Diaries. Only this will be from Caroline's POV. I know some of you aren't TVD fans, so sorry that you got this story request hoping it was another HP or Twilight story, but this is what I'm currently obsessing over, so it's what I'm writing about. I hope you enjoy!

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_The Wayward Future_

Chapter one: Strength

Caroline decided not to leave her bedroom for the rest of the day, or possibly the rest of the week, or her life. She wasn't even able to move at this point. Her pain had resided too deeply in her bones, keeping her from being able to do more than look at her phone through tear-blurred eyes. Bonnie had called her twice. After the second time, Caroline had listened to the message Bonnie had left for her only to discover that things in Mystic Falls were even worse than she had hoped.

"Caroline, I know why you didn't pick up, but you need to know about what is going on. Elena… Elena and Matt had an accident off of the Wickery Bridge. Matt is okay, Stefan got him out of the truck, but Elena. She-she's a vampire, Caroline. She drowned with Damon's blood in her. I don't know who she got blood from, but she transitioned this morning. Also, Alaric is dead, officially, because of Elena drowning. I understand if you want to lay low for a while. I'll be by later, I need to tell you something else, but I don't trust doing it this way. I need to tell you in person. I'll talk to you later. " The phone message clicked off and there was only silence.

Caroline was jolted by the news of the car accident. Her friends were nearly killed last night, Tyler _was_ killed, because Alaric killed Klaus, but now Alaric is dead. She was slowly losing everyone around her. Not to mention, the town was still after her, even if Tyler was now not a problem, they still knew what she was. She didn't care though. She needed to get up, to make sure her friends were okay. She needed to stay strong. Tyler wouldn't have wanted her to remain invalid for the rest of her life; he would have wanted her to go help her friends. So that is what she was going to do.

She drove to the hospital. It was funny how not a single cop she passed on the way there stopped her. They were looking for her, right? She was using her car to get around. They would more than likely see her. She smiled inwardly to herself, maybe they knew about her, but maybe they were afraid. That was a convenient thing.

When she got to the hospital and found that no one she knew was listed as being brought in, she was kind of flummoxed. Why hadn't they brought Matt here? She pulled her phone from her jeans pocket and dialed his number. He picked up on the third ring.

"Caroline?" She immediately brightened at how good he sounded.

"Matt? Where are you? Where is everyone? Are you okay?" She rushed her words, but was headed out the door as she said them, back into the morning light that stung at the corner of her eyes.

"I'm fine, Car," the shortened version of her name rolled off his tongue. She had always secretly liked how it sounded like "care". It made her feel like she was caring, even when she was a vapid fool. "Everyone is at Elena's right now. Stefan helped me out and now we are all keeping an eye on things at Elena's."

Caroline caught on quickly. Matt had been given vampire blood to help him avoid what ever had happened to him and now everyone was on "Elena watch" to see what the new vampire Elena was like. Matt was probably there to help her with her humanity. She figured Jeremy and the others were probably with them as well.

"You mean trapped me here! I don't understand why you all are here when we have other things to worry about. I can't even go out anyways. I don't have a sunlight ring like the rest of you." Elena sounded a bit cranky, but sounded like herself none-the-less. Caroline smiled at the thought that Elena would become an over-worried vampire version of herself. It was going to be interesting to see what was heightened with her friend, especially since Caroline knew the side of Elena that was often kept hidden.

"I'm coming over." Caroline said as she started her car. There was a scurry of noises on the other line of the phone and then a short shout of "ow" by Matt before Elena's voice came over the phone. She clearly had stolen Matt's phone from him.

"Oh, Caroline, you don't have to. I know you need some time right now and I don't want to force you into anything." Elena took a short breath and then seemed to change tactics. "That is, of course, unless you need a friend. Then please come over. Matt and I don't want you to be alone and we can call Bonnie, even though she hasn't been answering our calls. I think she is upset with me and…" Elena went silent and Caroline could hear Stefan through the phone.

"Deep breaths, Matt go into the kitchen and get some water." Caroline was slightly confused by what happened.

"Hello?"

"Hold on, Caroline." Was the only answer she got back, and it was from Stefan, not Elena.

Caroline was pulling into the drive now and hung up the phone.

When she came into the house, she closed the door quickly, not wanting to let too much sunlight in to the place for Elena's sake. She found Elena encompassed by both Damon and Stefan on the couch. Elena's hands were fisted into her eyes and she was seemingly sobbing into them. Words were being cooed very lightly from Stefan, while Damon looked on as if something was tearing him apart inside. Matt and Jeremy were both watching from the kitchen, until Matt saw Caroline enter the room.

"Car," Matt moved to come through the rooms to her, looking like he was going to hug her, but Elena was up in a flash, beating him to her.

"I'm so sorry." She rang out loudly into Caroline's shoulder. "I didn't want any of this for anyone and I'm such a terrible friend. I should have just done this all along and then…" Elena stopped, her eyes getting dark again.

Caroline hugged back, needing the comfort of her friend, but was also distracted by the over-reaction Elena was giving her. It was kind of comical to see Elena react this way. The hug seemed to calm Elena down though. When the girl pulled away, Caroline could see that her eyes were no longer vein-y and dark like they had been.

"Well, if a hug was all Elena needed to calm down, imagine what a kiss would have done." Damon's words were responded to with glares from every person in the room.

"I wasn't suggesting, Caroline." He announced as if that had been the problem everyone was having with what he had said. Stefan stiffened.

"Damon, why are you here?" Caroline was the first to attack the older Salvatore as she felt a comment from anyone else would be over-examined and Elena needed to avoid deeply connected thoughts until she could control her emotions better.

"Why is anyone of us here? Because Elena can't have any fun until dark or Bonnie decides to grace us with her appearance and a ring." Damon was sounding like his old self, and Caroline didn't like it.

"Well then why don't you do something helpful for once and go find her." Caroline suggested.

"Why do I have to be the one to go? I'm not exactly someone the witch wants to talk to ever again." Damon's eyes glowed heavily with the meaning of his words, and Caroline relented.

"Fine, I'll come too." Caroline was surprised to hear Matt take the words right out of her mouth.

"Me too." Caroline added. "See, now you aren't the only one, Damon. I'm sure Elena will be fine here with Jeremy and Stefan keeping her company."

Elena turned around toward Caroline and grabbed Caroline's arm. "Are you sure you want to be going out and looking for Bonnie. I'm sure Matt and Damon will find her. You don't have to-" Caroline cut Elena off.

"No, I need something to distract me and looking for Bonnie will help. Plus, she left me a message earlier saying she needed to talk to me, so I think I'll be able to find her quickly anyways." At Caroline's words everyone's eyes drew to her. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Bonnie called you? Today?" Elena asked, disappointed.

"Yeah, I missed the call and she left me a message. That's how I knew what was going on with you and Matt." Elena turned around to look at Stefan and Damon. Just as she did, the two Salvatore brothers made eye contact themselves, as if to say something to one another with just one look.

"We need to find her, now." Damon lashed out suddenly, grabbing his jacket and heading past Elena and Caroline to the door. Elena swiftly moved away just as the door opened and let in sunlight, before closing quickly again.

"Text me the details." Caroline said seriously to Elena before waving Matt over and they headed out, taking Caroline's car. Caroline couldn't wait for the text message though and she immediately jumped on Matt.

"What was with everyone getting all on Bonnie's case?" She asked as she turned the first corner, heading toward Bonnie's house.

"Stefan and Damon seem to think Bonnie has been acting weird lately. Something about how she looked when leaving the storage unit where they were hiding Klaus' body. Then Stefan talked to her last night right after Elena woke up and told her about me giving Elena blood so she could transition." Caroline was connecting the information in her head. Matt had been the one to give blood to Elena that's why Stefan had healed him. Hadn't Bonnie said she didn't know who gave Elena blood? That seemed odd. You'd think Stefan would have mentioned it was Matt. "Bonnie said she was going to come over this morning, but never did. That's why they are so worried; they think Bonnie might be backing out of helping Elena."

"Doesn't sound like Bonnie," was all Caroline said to accompany his words.

The second Caroline pulled into the driveway at Bonnie's house she knew she wasn't going to find her friend there. When Jamie answered the door and confirmed this, Caroline began to worry. She pulled out her phone when she got back into her car with Matt.

"Hello?"

"Bonnie, thank goodness. I was worried something happened to you. Are we still meeting up today?" Caroline tried to motion to Matt to stay quiet.

"Yeah, right after I head to Elena's, I had to find a ring for her so she could go out into the sun like the rest of us. Actually I think I found her mom's ring, as in her real mother. I found it in the cemetery after doing a tracking spell for the lapis lazuli. I figured it would lead me to a jewelry store or something." Bonnie rambled on a bit about her morning, but Caroline let her. She didn't want to give away that she was specious. The Salvatore's were right to worry. Bonnie didn't sound the same, she almost sounded nonchalant and uninterested in her words, like she was acting like Bonnie instead of being her.

"Well, great. Give Elena a call. I'm sure she'll be glad to hear all this. She's been locked up all morning." Caroline stayed positive as she said this, but gravely had a turn of thought. Tyler. He was probably lying dead in the old Lockwood estate ruins right now. "I gotta go, Bonnie. I'm with Matt. We're about to drive. I'll talk to you later." Caroline hung up the phone.

"Why did you end it like that?" Matt asked Caroline, not missing her sudden change in attitude. "Especially since you wanted to keep me quiet?"

"I kind of need your help with something, Matt." Caroline said just as ominously as she felt. "I wanted to find Tyler's body and bury him, or take him to his mothers so she can. I don't want to leave him in the ruins." Her eyes were stinging, but not from the sunlight this time, she could feel the pressure of tears that were welling up. "I don't want someone to accidentally find him like that."

Caroline was engulfed by Matt's arms as he spent a minute or two calming her down. "Yeah, we should go get him." He agreed.

"Okay," Caroline sniffed and backed out of the driveway, heading toward the one place she never thought she would want to see again, but she had to go. She needed to see that he was gone and that he wasn't coming back. She couldn't leave things with him the way they were after the way he made her leave last night. She needed to say goodbye.

It was only a short drive through town, but Caroline was glad that she had to keep a human pace with Matt when walking into the woods. She probably should have fed before doing this. She was feeling a pang in her stomach and she assumed that it was from hunger and not heartache, or possibly it was both. She didn't want it there though and was upset she was going to have to deal with it while going after Tyler's body. In no time at all the two were descending the steps into the room she had left Tyler and walking through the doors. She saw the chains that hung from the wall and were tied to the floor, but something was missing from this picture. Tyler wasn't there.

"I don't see him." Matt said as he walked around the far right of the room.

Caroline refused to believe it, but her eyes were telling her the same thing. He wasn't here. He must have transformed and run out uncontrolled before death took him. Or, or…

"Matt do you think he might have survived?" Caroline voiced her question lightly, but was letting the hope of the thought get to her.

"I don't know. I don't understand any of this, but Car, you can't assume anything until we find him." Matt sounded like he didn't believe his own words.

"I know it's just-" Caroline saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Tyler?" Matt tried, giving Caroline hope, but with no response Caroline panicked. She chucked her car keys toward Matt.

"Go Matt, get out." Matt looked conflicted for a second as he juggled the keys he'd caught. He was just about to turn and run when the shadow came into view and Caroline was moving before he could even react.

"Tyler!" The cry was of joy that came out of Caroline's mouth and it stopped Matt behind her.


	2. Knowledge

Wow, I think that is the most interest I've ever gotten from a first chapter of a story in... ever! Lots of Klaroline fans out there apparently. Well, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter a little more than. Tootles! (And thanks for the three reviews. They are always more fun to see then people putting this in story alert, even though I love those too!)

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_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 2: Knowledge

Caroline's cries echoed off the walls of the little room as she kissed Tyler over and over, than hugged him profusely.

"You're alive!" She kissed him again. His hands touched her frame lightly as if she was delicate. Caroline couldn't ever remember Tyler holding her like this. "I can't believe you're alive."

She pulled him in closer knowing that Matt was nearby, but not caring. Again, Tyler's hands didn't find the right spots. They took their hold on her hips instead of holding her around her waist and seemed to be pulling her up to him instead of into him. His hold wasn't like him at all, and now that she thought of it, neither was his kiss. Usually Tyler was all over the place, but for some reason right now he was being direct, kissing her like he wanted to overpower her or control her.

Caroline stepped out of the embrace and looked Tyler up and down. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Tyler's voice, sounding normal. "Why would it be, love?"

The words may have come out of Tyler's mouth and been pronounced by Tyler's lips, but they were most certainly not Tyler's words. Even without the accent punctuating the line, Caroline knew exactly who was in Tyler's body.

"Klaus." Caroline crumbled at the name. Her features took a turn as a hatred built up inside her. Behind her Matt shifted and stood guarded at hearing the name.

"What?" Matt said with a confused tone.

"It's not Tyler, its Klaus in Tyler's body." Caroline said and took another step away from him. Her body screamed for her to move back in to the space she left and to hold Tyler again, but her mind was disgusted that she had even done it in the first place. "That was you last night too, wasn't it?"

"Oh don't sound so upset by that, Sweetheart." Klaus practically cooed to her. "It's much more agreeable this way, isn't it? Now you can have us both."

Caroline made a face at his words. "This is not agreeable. This is not in any way right. It's sick, in fact, it's psychotic. Get out of him!" As Caroline yelled this, she motioned to Matt with her hand behind her back, waving him to leave.

Matt took a second to realize what she was doing and what she meant before turning and running at full speed back to Caroline's car.

Klaus made to move around Caroline and stop him, but Caroline pushed Klaus up against the stone wall of the ruin keeping him there. "I said get out of him."

"Really, because your eyes are saying something very different." Klaus smiled as he made Caroline shiver.

"I don't care what my eyes are saying. I'm saying get out of my boyfriend." Caroline argued again and gave a little shove to make her point.

"I'm finding it very hard to believe that you want me to leave. Especially since your lips keep puckering." Klaus' tone was playful and it only made Caroline angrier.

"They do that when I feel like killing something." Caroline lied, although she couldn't imagine why anyone's lips would pucker at the thought of killing.

"You know, even in this body I am stronger than you. You don't want to upset me." He said looking down at where her hands were holding him back. "Besides, I think you are missing the potential in all of this."

"I am missing nothing." Caroline shot back.

"Oh, so you do know what we could be doing with me in this body, then?" Klaus smirked around the words. His eyes were alluring the way Tyler's were when he flirted.

Caroline let go of Klaus and turned her back on him, folding her arms in front of her chest. As angry as she was, she couldn't kill him. Not because he was stronger. That she wasn't sure about, but because he was in Tyler's body. She couldn't even consider harming the body, no matter who was in it. Plus, how would that get Tyler back?

She was sure that Matt had made it to the car by now and was headed back safely into town where he could alert everyone of the news that Klaus was now in Tyler's body.

"If this is some attempt to get me to be with you instead of Tyler, it's not working." Caroline said sharply ready to walk out of the little space. In fact, that's exactly what she decided to do, get out of there. Unfortunately, Klaus followed.

"Actually this was the perfect excuse for people to think me dead so your little teacher friend would stop coming after me and so I would be able to live among my Doppelganger without any of your other friends trying to kill me. It was very nice for such a short notice." Klaus explained as if she was worth knowing. "Not to mention the perk of being your boyfriend."

"You're not my boyfriend, Klaus." Caroline corrected him.

"But I am." He said waving his hand in front of himself to prove his point that he was in fact currently her boyfriend, physically.

"So selfishly stubborn," Caroline mumbled then turned to look at him again. "Well, the flaw in that plan is that we all know you are in Tyler's body now, so there isn't a lot of hiding you can do."

"On the contrary, Love, that doesn't ruin my plans at all. You see, they were going to find out eventually, but they won't have any way of eradicating me from this body." Klaus sounded perfectly at ease with this news as if he preferred Tyler's body to his own, which seemed ridiculous to Caroline. "In fact, I think they are going to find it quite difficult."

"You forgot that we have Bonnie and she'll figure out some way to get you out of there." Caroline argued. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see that Elena's house was calling her. Good, that meant Matt had made it back. She ignored the call however, as she didn't want her conversation overheard by the hybrid that was now stalking behind her as she walked.

"Oh, I doubt that very much." Klaus said smiling despite himself. "You see, she is the one who put me here in the first place."

Caroline came to a full stop. She could see the edge of the woods where the main road cut through, but she couldn't focus on it as the words rang in her ears. "She…What?"

"I couldn't very well let myself get killed by that teacher, now could I? Not with all of you tied to me. I would not only be responsible for my death, but for yours as well. Bonnie seemed to think that my safety was a priority in keeping her friends alive, and Tyler, well, he became the sacrifice you all needed." Klaus looked pleased with his words and Caroline couldn't help, but falter as she tried to keep up with everything that was being implied. "You are alive, because she made the choice to save me. I think Tyler would have been happy to hear that."

"Stop it." Caroline said defensively. "Stop acting like he's gone. Stop acting like you know him at all. He was finally free of you and now he's locked in more forcibly by you than ever!" Caroline couldn't make eye contact with her words. Every time she looked up she only saw Tyler and had to keep reminding herself who it really was.

Klaus stepped forward and placed one of his hands on Caroline's hips. Her eyes had welled up with tears again and she wanted nothing more desperately than to move in closer to Tyler, dip her head into the nook of his shoulder, and just be held by him again. She couldn't though, not with the knowledge that it was Klaus in that body.

"This wasn't meant to hurt you." Klaus said lightly.

When she looked up into his face, she was mesmerized by the look on Tyler's features. It was such a strong look of compassion, one that morphed Tyler's features in a way that Tyler never could. For a second, she let the hands of Tyler find their way around her, pulling her in for comfort. Her mind was so filled with emotion that she was able to consider for a second how maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that this was Klaus whom had promised her all these crazy things and never gave up though she kept pushing him away; and whom had just yesterday helped her escape the wild vampire Alaric who had tortured her. Then reality decided to check itself and she pulled back from Klaus. Her eyes darkened as she seemed to decide something.

"But it did," was all she got out and she was running before she even realized where she was going.

Home, she and Bonnie needed to have a talk.

Caroline found herself pacing her kitchen, glad her mother wasn't home. She had already explained last night how Tyler had died and she didn't feel like explaining how Tyler was now walking around town with the Original Hybrid in him. She was trying to figure out if there was any way possible that Tyler could still be alive, but she knew the only way that she would know for sure was asking Bonnie. It was driving her crazy not knowing and Bonnie had sounded so forlorn in her original message that she wondered if she didn't already know the answer she was going to get from her friend.

Caroline took a long drawn out deep breath to calm her. Thinking about this was not going to help anyone and the blood she had to drink was not helping her thirst for the truth. Why was it so tied together? Her emotions and her thirst were so connected she wondered sometimes how any vampire could tell them apart. No wonder Stefan had been a Ripper. He is always so concerned about others that he must have to drink like a camel to satiate all the feelings and keep them away.

When her front door opened, she panicked for a second thinking her mother was home, but was happy to see that it was only Bonnie coming through her door.

"I know," Caroline said first not wanting to have to pretend until Bonnie confessed. She didn't care at this point why she did it. She understood her friend's motives. What she wanted to know was if it was permanent.

"Good, I don't like lying to you." Bonnie huffed out. It was the most normal she had sounded all day.

"Do you know if…" Caroline started and bit her lip before being able to ask about Tyler. "I mean. Is Tyler still in there?"

Bonnie looked down at her hands and played with a ring on her right hand. She looked like she was a loss of what to say. Caroline tried not to seem anxious, but she couldn't hold back her worry.

"Bonnie, what?" She asked finally.

"I don't know how to say this. I did the spell to switch their bodies. I thought that Tyler wouldn't be affected if I cursed the stake to only kill Originals, but I never saw the stake. I don't know if it worked and Alaric stabbed Klaus just as I did the spell. I don't know where Tyler is. I don't know if he is in there with Klaus or if…" She couldn't finish her sentence and Caroline faltered, falling to the floor as she realized she may have lost Tyler after all. Even saving Klaus may have still lost Tyler for her.

"But you're still here." Bonnie seemed to lose her momentum with these words. "You're alive." Her eyes watered.

"Bonnie." Caroline said and looked up from the floor, revealing the blackened vein-y eyed vampire that Caroline really was. "I'd get out of my house, if I were you."


	3. Disbelief

Well, geez, that was fast. I must be really dedicated to this story, because this is the fastest I've ever gotten out three chapters before. I hope you all enjoy and thanks again for the reviews!

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_A Wayward Future_

__Chapter 3: Disbelief

A few days had gone by, but Caroline had found herself back in the same spot she had begun, her bed. She had convinced her mom she was much better off staying in Mystic Falls and making it look like she had run off with Tyler since she didn't plan on ever leaving her house again. She was much more comfortable here, in a place she knew. The day before there had been a knock at the door and her mother had been gone, so she waited for about an hour before finally getting up and seeing what the person had wanted. She noticed something sitting on her front porch through the glass window panel by her door, but she couldn't make out what it was until she opened her front door. A basket of flowers lay in front of her, only she found out later that the flowers were a ruse to hide the blood bags that filled the bottom. She figured Elena had dropped it off to her as a sympathy gift for Caroline now that her friend could go out into the daylight. Elena didn't have a town after her and she was the only vampire here who didn't. Thanks to Alaric all the places in town were being watched pretty thoroughly for any of the Salvatore's, Mikaelson's, Tyler, or herself to show up. It left life pretty boring to say the least, not that Caroline cared. She didn't want to go to all the places that would remind her of Tyler.

It was still pretty earlier in the morning when Caroline picked herself up from her bed and showered. She had decided today she was going to answer all the annoying calls and texts on her phone and pretend that she was back to normal. She had to do something with herself and seeing a few friends might cheer her up. She was just pulling on boots when she heard her front door open and close quietly.

That was weird, she thought. She could hear her mother sleeping in the other room and knew that it hadn't been her coming through the door. So who had it been?

Caroline snuck out to the hall as silently as she could, and peeked just one eye around the corner to see Tyler in her foyer. Not Tyler, she reminded herself, Klaus.

"Ah good, you are home." He spoke as he spotted her. Caroline came completely into view and started pointing to the front door. He didn't understand by the look on his face. She gestured wildly again at the door and walked past Klaus.

"Not here. Outside," she practically ordered of him, and surprisingly Klaus turned to follow her. "If my mom sees you, or even thinks she sees you, I'm going to have to explain that either Tyler isn't dead or that he is being inhabited, which I really don't feel like doing either of."

"No need for explanations, love." Klaus said as they headed down the street toward the woods. Caroline's head harshly turned left and right, surveying the area around her as she walked. Klaus seemed to notice this. "Afraid someone will recognize you with your boyfriend?"

"One, you are not my boyfriend, and two, this town kind of has it out for us right now and I'd really like to not get shot by a vervain dart right now." Caroline said crossly. She was slowing her pace as she came upon the edge of the woods, but planned to keep walking as they talked for whatever reason Klaus was at her house looking for her.

"You don't have to worry about that now. I've taken care of those would-be vampire hunters also known as deputies in this town. You can walk freely here with me." Klaus sounded sure of himself, but Caroline wasn't buying it.

"How'd you manage that?" She asked curiously.

"Let's just say that what they thought was vervain in their teas and coffees was actually just lavender stock. It was easy enough to persuade them that certain people around here aren't a threat to them and that they were compelled to believe whatever the teacher said to them." Klaus smiled around his words and it suddenly occurred to Caroline that she was no longer seeing Tyler when she looked at him, but Klaus himself. That irked her. Her mind so quickly adjusted.

Caroline tried not to look relieved by this news, although she actually was quite a bit. She knew her mother was fine, because she got her vervain from Mrs. Lockwood and not from whoever was running the town now that her mom wasn't Sheriff anymore. It still left one question on her mind.

"So, what were you doing at my house, then?"

Klaus didn't seem affected by the switch in the conversation at all. "I was making sure you were still here. You're mother is still spreading the news that you and the boy left town. I figured she would have "called you back home" now that the threat was off, but she seemed to keep up her charade. I was worried you really had left."

"So you walk right through my front door?" Caroline snorted. "A knock would have worked."

"Ah, yes, but then your mother might have answered and recognized Tyler at her door. That would not have ended well since, I was assuming, she knew his situation." Klaus' answer made sense to Caroline, but she still felt like arguing how ridiculous it was for him to be there. "And you have been locking your window."

She looked down at him when he said this. Yes, she had and obviously for good reason.

"I'm alive and here, as always. Now that you know you can go back to your evil scheming." Caroline said exacerbated by all of this. She really felt like getting away from Klaus and going through with her plan from early on. "And why are you even still in his body? Everyone knows it's you in there. No point in it now. You must miss your old self."

Klaus stepped in front of Caroline and was face to face with her. "Do you miss it?" He asked with such a straight forward curiosity that Caroline found herself answering honestly.

"Yes."

"Really?"

"I mean, no, er yes." Caroline stammered on her answer. "I mean I want you out of him and back in your own body so that I can hate you when I look at you." Caroline practically yelled the last part in his face and she stepped back from him, looking down at her boots in disbelief of what she said. Had he compelled her to answer him? That was impossible. She was ingesting the gross vervain stuff on a regular basis. She had answered him of her own free will and had answered him in a way that was making him smirk like he'd won a war.

"Well, it just so happens that you'll be getting your wish soon, Sweetheart. I only need a little more time for my siblings to think I'm dead so I can finish my… scheming." He borrowed Caroline's word. "Then you'll have me back in my rightful place." Klaus moved to brush a strand of blonde hair out of Caroline's face and looked surprised when Caroline didn't swat his hand away. She was too deep in thought to care what he was doing.

If Klaus was serious and she was pretty sure he wouldn't lie to her, then he only needed a week. Then in a week she could find out if Tyler had survived Bonnie's spell. She could deal for just a week more, couldn't she? That didn't seem so horrible.

"Fine, a week-" but as Caroline got out the last word, something hit her in the back and she immediately knew it was a vervain dart. She glared at Klaus as she sunk to the floor. Hadn't she told him she didn't want to get shot, and yet here she was with a dart in her back? So much for his persuasion, she thought then crumbled and passed out.

The vervain didn't keep her out long since she had been drinking the stuff.

When Caroline opened her eyes she realized she was no longer in the woods, but instead in a very familiar looking wood paneled room. Her vision blurred a bit as she looked around, but she was sure she had been there before. Then noticed Tyler was looming over her and she was even more confused and tried to sit up from where she was laying on the couch.

"Don't try to get up just yet, Love." Caroline moaned as she realized who was actually saying those words and she closed her eyes in pain. She wanted the fogginess to go away so she could get the hell out of there. She knew where she was. She knew exactly where she was, she was in Klaus' house. She couldn't believe her luck, all she had wanted to do today was see her friends and now she was being babysat by Klaus while her body burned off the vervain.

"How did I get here?" Caroline asked slightly confused.

"I brought you here." Klaus said innocently.

"Yes, I realized that. I mean what happened in the woods that lead us to here." She wanted to know the full story, because she was pretty sure that whoever had shot her did not make it out alive and she was having trouble deciding if that was a good or a bad thing. She had been shot by one of those darts before and the effect they have on your mind was not a pleasant experience for anyone.

"You were shot, so I killed the officer and picked you up, brought you back here before his back up arrived. If he was smart enough to call any in, that is." Klaus was still acting innocently, saying he killed the man like it was an everyday thing. Caroline realized that it probably was an everyday thing and rolled her eyes at her own thoughts.

She could have argued with him forever about killing someone, but she knew it would get her nowhere, so she relented instead. "Thank you." She barely got the words out.

Klaus seemed surprised for a moment. "You're welcome, Caroline."

She sat up on the couch and pulled her legs to the floor so she was in a sitting position instead of lying down. Klaus moved too and came to sit down next to her. Once he sat, an awkward silence seemed to fall between them. Caroline tried looking around instead of at him, trying to think of something to say that would keep them from being in the silence, but she was having trouble coming up with anything. She tried family, since that's where they left off outside.

"So, you're siblings haven't been back in the house since you've died?" she asked looking around. They would definitely know he was still alive if he was just coming and going as he pleased in his own house, even in Tyler's body.

"I don't think they ever really saw this place as theirs. They haven't been around town to use it anyway. Not now that my doppelganger is a vampire. They seem to think this town pointless without Elena or I to tempt them here." Klaus' eyes fell on Caroline and he saw how she squirmed when he said this.

"So you know then." Caroline squirmed some more.

"I always know. That's why I'm still alive." His eyes held her as he said this and she blushed lightly. Why she blushed, she wasn't sure, but it happened and she couldn't exactly stop it.

"So, I umm, I kind of had plans to do something today." She said and stood up from the couch, finding that her head wasn't so bad anymore. Klaus reached out and took her hand when she stood.

"Stay." It was so tiny a request, but the feeling behind it was way more than Caroline could take. She wanted to pull her hand from his and walk out, but she couldn't find it in her to do it. He was being nice after all, and he did save her.

Plus, he looks like Tyler, her mind reminded her and she wondered if that had something to do with why she sat back down on the couch.

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Hey, you know what makes a happy Klaroline? People reviewing. Look there is a button there and everything just below. Thanks!


	4. Honesty

Well, not sure how this happened, but this chapter is much longer. So enjoy that! And also thank you for the reviews!

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_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 4: Honesty

Caroline really wasn't sure how it happened. At first there conversation had been light, nothing very interesting, but then Klaus started talking about his past and his siblings, how they all lived. He got into a very detailed description of the place he grew up and Caroline felt like she had been there. He knew every inch of the woods around where he lived and loved picking on his brothers any chance that he got. Caroline wasn't sure if he was over-exaggerating any of his stories, because they all seemed so possible coming from him. Like Elijah getting a week's worth of honey dumped on to his head only to have a bunch of their dogs follow him around for the rest of the day, trying to jump on him. That was until his mom finally found a mixture that cured him of the stickiness. Elijah apparently still hates the smell of real honey. Klaus even listened to one or two of her own stories, like when she figured out that her dad was gay. He had been disappearing a couple nights a week, apparently going out on dates, and he cried whenever they watched Titanic together. Caroline felt like she'd always known; that she had just been waiting for him to tell her. The weird thing was that she didn't even get upset talking about her dad, even though she could barely think about him lately without feeling like crying. Somehow bringing him up this way didn't make her want to cry, but made her happy she'd had such a cool dad.

When Klaus finished a story about Rebekah's jealousy toward some princess from long ago, Caroline noticed that it was starting to get dark outside. She had been at Klaus' all day. It was starting to near the point where she really needed to get out of there and see her friends. Not that she would tell them what she had been doing all day, but she did want to make sure everyone was doing all right. In this town things seemed to happen on a regular basis and it had been too quite since Elena became a vampire.

"I think I should be heading out now." Caroline said politely and started to stand. Klaus stood with her. He seemed to be debating in his mind whether he could keep her here longer as he was frantically looking about like a good reason would be lying on the floor somewhere. After a few seconds he met Caroline's eyes.

"I should drive you." Klaus suggested referring to the fact that his house was not exactly near to her own and that she had been attacked once already today, even though he had supposedly fixed the town's problem with her. He had made some comment earlier about a few people slipping through the cracks and she had noted that it was probably the reason her mother was keeping up the façade that she had run off.

Caroline was going to decline, but curiosity got the better of her. "You have a car?" She hadn't ever seen one of the Originals use a car and she had figured they all thought they were too good for such vehicles.

"Well, not exactly. Let's just say Kol has a liking for such things and he left it here." He went to go grab the keys and Caroline was left for a moment to wonder what ridiculous thing she was about to get into and whether Klaus was a good driver or not. "It'll be outside." Klaus said when he returned and Caroline followed him to it.

It was much more ordinary than Caroline would have expected an Original car to be. Even with the Bentley symbol gracing the trunk and the small one placed on the front, it didn't seem to stand out. Had it been in some well to-do neighborhood it wouldn't have ever stood out, but in her small town it was probably the most expensive one being driven. When she got in she was surprised by the wooden accents and the brown leather seats that made it a bit more ostentatious on the inside. It was a lot more spacious than she had thought it would be as well.

It was a smooth ride back to her place, and she was almost certain Klaus was maintaining the speed limit on purpose to have every moment possible with her. It would have been flattering had it been anyone else doing it.

"You know, we all celebrated you being caught in Bonnie's spell and out of our lives. We were happy that you were dead for the most part." Caroline said suddenly, surprising even herself. Klaus didn't seem to make any facial recognition of what she said, but he was definitely gripping the wheel tighter. She wondered what it could have been made of to not snap in his hands or if he was capable of controlling how hard he gripped it even now when she had clearly upset him. "I just want you to know where you stand. If you really are trying to befriend me right now, with all that you've done, I just want you to realize how you rank with me."

"I think you've made it perfectly clear before, Caroline." Klaus said so evenly that Caroline was afraid of what he could possibly be hiding behind the well placed calmness.

"No, I don't think I did." Caroline disagreed. She was aware that at any moment he could strike out at her, that he was capable of horrendous things at her expense, but she felt a need to say this. She was sure there was a good reason for it, even if she couldn't figure out why. "If there is even a chance that I could forgive you for everything else that has happened because of you. I will still never be able to forgive you for taking Tyler away from me." She paused for a second and looked out her window. She wasn't surprised that they were at her house now.

"Caro-"

"No, let me finish." She cut him off. "I will never forgive you for it and the fact that you are still using his body is just a constant reminder of what you did. Every time I see you like this, it's all I can think about." She reached for the door handle and pulled herself out of the car, but stopped and turned back to him. "You did this. You put yourself in this situation, so don't go blaming it on Bonnie or anyone else, because no one else would have to do anything if it weren't for you forcing their hand at every turn. I just want you to think on that before you consider ever coming to my house again."

With that, Caroline closed the car door and walked inside her house. She was just about to head to her room when she remembered she was still planning on seeing her friends today. She pulled her phone from her pocket and saw the missed call from Elena. She peeked out her front door window and went outside when she saw Klaus had left.

The drive to Elena's house was quick, but she noted the significant difference between riding in her own car and riding in the one Klaus had. She could feel every bump in the road. It made her shaky as she walked up to the front door of the house.

She was surprised when Jeremy answered the door. "Hey, is Elena home?"

"She's upstairs." Jeremy said and walked away from the open door back toward the living room. Caroline went to step into the house and nearly smashed her face on nothing. She couldn't get in.

"Hey Jeremy, did they put the house in your name?" Caroline called to him. His head peeked from around the corner and he half smiled.

"Oh right, please come into my house, Caroline." He said amused. "They put my name on it yesterday."

He disappeared again and Caroline walked in, trying to suppress the urge to pummel Elena's little brother. She hated the whole invitation thing. It had to be one of the stupidest things about being a vampire.

"Elena," Caroline called as she knocked on her friend's bedroom door. She heard a soft "come in" from the other side and was surprised when she found Elena entangled in her duvet.

"Boy problems?" Caroline asked and wasn't surprised when Elena moaned.

"They're both being so smothering. Stefan wants me to learn to live off of his diet and Damon wants to teach how he does it, but both of them keep trying to spend every moment I'm with them asking if I'm okay and if I can handle this and if there is something I want. You'd think being a vampire now would alert them both to the fact that I can take care of myself, but it just makes them worry more. Like I need two overly obsessive guys right now when I'm trying to be normal vampire girl." Elena blurted out. Caroline tried not to laugh, but couldn't hide the smile from her friend. White fabric flew at her. She blocked the pillow that was aimed at her face and sat down on the corner of her friend's bed, hugging the pillow to her stomach.

"I don't think they really get that there is more on your mind right now than them." Caroline said easily. "I think they are both just trying to be selfish with you since, you know, you could suddenly make a choice about one of them now that you have vampire strength emotions."

"But I don't. I'm just as confused as I was before." Elena said and flattened the duvet under her hands.

"I don' think that is going to stop them from trying, think about it. If you pick one, the other one is probably not going to want to be around much to see it. So they are trying to get as much time with you as possible so that they have something to remember you by and now it's forever, not just a scant amount of years." Caroline was suddenly reading into her own words. She hushed that part of her brain and tried to focus on Elena.

"When did you get to be some 'know it all' guru?" Elena asked her, sitting up straighter.

"Hey, I've always been good at guy problems. That is one of my strong points." Caroline smiled and Elena mimicked her. Caroline was glad she was able to make her friend happy. She could tell Elena really needed it. "Besides, outside perspectives are always easier viewing points."

Elena sighed and started to undo the braid in her hair, giving it a small amount of curl. Caroline was reminded of Katherine and nearly launched herself backwards of the bed, but remember last second that Jeremy had to invite her in now. Hopefully he had been smart enough to make sure it was his real sister and not her evil twin.

"Hey Elena, remember that time that I twisted my ankle on the slip-and-slide at Matt's house?" Caroline said suspiciously, testing her friend.

"What?" Elena looked back toward Caroline confused. "Caroline, Matt never had a slip-and-slide. That was Sarah Wright's house that you twisted your ankle, Matt wasn't even there."

Caroline relaxed then. It was definitely Elena.

"Sorry, just checking." Caroline was expecting another pillow thrown at her, but Elena just looked somber at the news.

"Yeah, I'm getting that more and more. It's harder to tell if I'm me now that both Katherine and I are vampires. Not to mention, she is back in town." Elena got up from her bed and grabbed her hair brush, trying to brush out the creases.

Caroline was a little shocked by the news that Katherine was back. Especially with Klaus still… They did know Klaus was still alive, right? Then she remembered about Matt leaving the Lockwood's cellar. Did he make it back? He had to have; her car was brought back to her place that night.

"Elena, Matt told you about Klaus, right?" Caroline asked a little frantically.

"Of course, the night I turned just before we went off the bridge. I know he's dead." Elena said, frowning. Twice now Caroline had questioned her without fully explaining, but Caroline was trying to figure it out herself. If she didn't know Klaus was in Tyler, then Matt didn't make it back.

"Oh my God, Matt," Caroline said out loud and pulled out her phone, dialing his number. It rang five times and went to his voicemail.

Elena was watching Caroline, still frowning at her. "He's at work, Car. He left here about three to get there early."

"He was here? Today?" Caroline asked, closing the phone.

"Yeah, he's been stopping by almost every day since the accident." Elena explained and again Caroline relaxed, but only a second before she was worked up again.

Her mind raced over the other day. When she left the cellar, her car was gone. She had assumed Matt had gone to Elena's, but she went home instead of checking. When she got home, her car wasn't there. Then Bonnie had come over. Then her mom came home. Her mom had said something about parking too close to the bushes. So her car had to have been there when her mom got home. That meant that someone dropped it off between her getting home and her mom coming home, but the only person who was there was Bonnie.

"Bonnie," Caroline said out loud to agree with her own thoughts and seemed to confuse Elena even further. So she decided it was time to let everyone in on Klaus' secret while she still could.

"What about Bonnie?" Elena asked worried again and looking like she was about to shake the information out of Caroline.

"There's something you need to know about Tyler, Klaus and Bonnie, Elena. I don't think you are going to like it either."

It took Caroline a while to convince Elena that she wasn't make any of it up and that she was sure Bonnie was covering Klaus' tracks for him. It was the only thing that added up to Matt not knowing about Tyler or telling anyone about it. Elena and Caroline had to go the Grill in the end to ask Matt about it.

"The only thing I remember is leaving the empty cellar, getting to Elena's house, and seeing Bonnie on her way out. She offered to take your car back to you for me, since she needed to see you for something any way." Matt said nonchalantly as he brought Caroline and Elena their drinks. Even Matt had seemed unsure about Caroline's version of the story, but he agreed that it was possible anyway. Since he supposedly never saw Tyler's body, it was logical to him that Klaus was the reason it wasn't there and sided with Caroline.

They had to sit in a corner and Caroline had borrowed a hooded jacket from Elena just in case someone recognized her. She didn't want to risk being attacked again, but it felt nice to be out at some place with her friends for once and not trapped at home.

"So Bonnie could have erased it from your memory when she ran into you outside of Elena's house without anyone knowing." Caroline said enthusiastically. "Didn't it seem weird to you that you just took my car back to Elena's in the first place without me?"

"No," Matt said and looked like he hadn't thought of that. "But then you saw her, right? Why didn't she erase your memory too?"

Caroline was stopped dead by Matt's question. She couldn't just tell them that Klaus wanted her to know he was alive so he could put his moves on her and that she'd spent the day with him. There was no way to explain that to anyone.

"I guess I never gave her the chance." Caroline said to cover her tracks. "I kind of scared her out when she told me about Tyler." She took a sip from her soda and noticed Elena had already finished hers, a clear sign that she was hungry. Caroline knew how human food could stifle it, so she ordered some. "Um, Matt can you bring us both some salads to start and I think I'm going to have the house cheeseburger and lots of fries."

"Sure, Car. Anything for you, Elena, other than the salad?" Matt asked, taking note that Caroline ordered more food than she normally would.

"I'll have the chicken salad sandwich actually." Elena said politely.

"With fries." Caroline added. When Elena gave her a weird look, Caroline just shrugged. "I'll eat yours if you don't finish them."

When Matt left the table to place the order and make the salads, Elena leaned toward Caroline.

"It's not what I'm hungry for." She said haughtily.

"No, but it'll help cut down on the craving until you can get some." Caroline said expertly. She was having flashbacks of how Stefan use to help her out and give her tips the first couple of weeks she was a vampire. He was always very open to her questions, even embarrassing ones. She had missed that bonding time with him. Stefan and she had become really close since she turned and she knew that favored him over Damon. Although, Damon hadn't been too annoying lately either, she doubted she would ever be as close with him. She definitely didn't mind that. She remembered too well how he had used compulsion on her when she had at first legitimately liked him and then how Stefan had saved her from being nearly drained by him. No, she could forgive, but not forget his ways. That was better than how she thought of Klaus though. At first impression she didn't like him, and though he tried, he didn't make much of a transition from that place in her mind. He didn't deserve the forgiveness as far as she was concerned. Any forgiveness she gave him would just get turned back on her in the end. He was constantly a menace. Though he wasn't much of one now, not without his doppelganger to make new hybrids from, he was more like a stalker. If he was more like how he had been with her earlier or at the ball with her, then she could see how she might be more forgiving. She might even actually consider him a friend if he was like that more often. He hadn't even made a move when they were talking earlier. He would only make comments like "the princess, who was nowhere near your beauty," or "the house brightens perceptively when you are here". Those weren't necessarily terrible comments to make, even if they were coming from him. He could still make her feel nice. There was nothing wrong with feeling nice.

"Earth to Caroline, the salad is starting to brown." Caroline looked down and saw her salad was in fact in front of her and that Elena was nearly finished with hers.

"Oh, thanks." Caroline said and dug into her food.

Yeah, thanks for saving me from my own thoughts, she thought to herself.

Luckily, Elena started to distract her with another rendition of "the Finer sides of the Salvatore Brothers in their own way" so Caroline didn't have time to go back to her previous thoughts. She focused on Elena's words. Caroline felt like she was a repetitive robot at one point, swearing that she'd had this conversation with Elena before the dance and still getting nowhere from it. That was when Elena let slip that she was curious how Damon was in bed.

"What?" Caroline said scrunching up her nose. "That's your argument for Damon?"

"No, but you've been with Damon. You know his rating." Elena said trying to avoid the word sex like she always did. "We could put that out on the table."

Caroline threw up her hands.

"Oh no, leave sex out of this decision. That is by no means a way to decide this. That's not even a contender." Caroline said, not wanting to give anything away.

"So, that good, huh?" Elena asked jokingly. "Might throw Stefan out of the running?"

"I've never slept with Stefan, so I don't know, but they are brothers." Caroline said as if this would make her point that this wasn't a good way to look at things. "And please, that was not an invitation to tell me about Stefan, I don't want to know!"

"You're no fun." Elena said and huffed. Matt brought out the rest of their food and the two fell silent for a few seconds to cram their faces. Caroline was right to order food, Elena was eating like she hadn't seen food in weeks.

"I think I'm rubbing off on you too much." Caroline said, referring to their previous conversation.

"Is that such a bad-" Elena stopped, her eyes fixing on something behind Caroline.

"Hi Bonnie," Elena said suddenly. "Hi Jamie, how have you been?"

Caroline stiffened like she had been caught talking about her, even though the conversation had been long past. She turned slowly to meet them both like nothing was wrong.

"Hey," she said being well-mannered, even though she didn't feel it.

"Want to join us?" Elena asked all smiles. She was much better at acting like nothing was wrong and Caroline let the focus stay on her.

"Actually, we were going to get our own table, but Caroline, your mom was outside looking for you. We saw Elena, and figured you were over here with her."

"Oh thanks," Caroline said hopping up. She was sure her mom was probably just worried that she was not at home and was out in public. She was being careful though, so her mom didn't need to worry.

She kept her head down as she walked toward the door. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail under the hood, but a loose lock fell when she looked down. When she got outside and glanced around quickly, she didn't see anyone. She walked toward the side of the building and caught a shadow standing there, but no police cars anywhere in site. Caroline frowned.

That's when the shadow spoke.

"Hello, Caroline." It was Klaus.


	5. Direction

Sorry it took a little longer than normal to get out. I changed this chapter around twice to better fit my storyline, but I think you are going to like where this is going! Enjoy all and thank you once again to those who reviewed!

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

__Chapter 5: Direction

Caroline must not have looked excited enough to see him as he frowned at her when he stepped out of the shadow and put himself in full view of her. Could she be blamed? She wasn't excited to see him still in Tyler's body, still attempting to become close to her, and probably not having considered anything that she had spat at him earlier that very day. Even though she had meant every word of it, she had secretly wished she hadn't said it. It fell into her old ways of being vapidly blunt about things. At least now she was only like that when her emotions were compromised.

"Bonnie sent me out to you?" Caroline snipped her words, making her sound like a five-year-old about to have a tantrum. She crossed her arms and planted her foot as she looked over him, trying to make it obvious how she felt about his use of her friends.

"I'll have to thank her later." Klaus said looking surprised. Caroline was confused by that. Hadn't he told Bonnie to send for her? Why would Bonnie do that of her own accord? "But I was looking for you."

"What for? I'm busy." Caroline desperately wanted to go back inside and hang out with her friends where she could be distracted by the crappiness that was currently her life.

"I wanted to rework our deal." Klaus said as if he was there on business only.

"Our deal?" Caroline grimaced.

"That I get one week to hide out in Tyler's body before I return to my own? That is if your witch friend keeps her word." Klaus said looking to the bar where Bonnie was with Jamie now. Caroline could just make them out through one of the front windows sitting together at a table.

"Right, so what do you want now then?" Caroline asked, incensed.

"Well, one of the main reasons I have kept myself in this body is to keep my siblings from knowing that I am alive. Considering Rebekah is the reason why my army of hybrids is now an impossibility, I have been attempting to find out where she has gone. Apparently she is in New York. She always had a thing for big cities, that girl. So I am going there after her." Klaus looked off into the distance as if his mind was remembering some story about his sister.

"Why are you telling me this?" Caroline wondered. "I don't care where you go as long as you've gotten the body back in a week."

Klaus smirked and met Caroline's eyes. "Well, you see. If Rebekah sees me in this body, she will assume that Tyler and his girlfriend are still on the run from this town. She won't trust you, but she won't fear you either. Even if she thinks you are upset that Elena and Matt were nearly killed you wouldn't be able to overtake her, and she may think you don't know about it. She won't understand why we are alive, but she won't see us as a threat, which is exactly what I want her to think."

"You want me to help you capture your sister?" Caroline asked catching on. "In New York?"

"Yes." It was all Klaus said, but his eyes held hers and seemed to plead with her. He did that too much; he was always using that look against her. It was something to do with his eyes. They just crinkled to this soft kitten-y look. She could even see it in Tyler's eyes now.

She looked down at the ground, trying to focus. He wanted her to leave town with him and go to New York, somewhere she had never been, and help him capture his sister.

"You don't really need me for that." Caroline tried. "Or Tyler."

"But it will be a better cover if you are there as well and she won't run the second she sees this body." Klaus easily commented.

Caroline thought for a moment.

"If I go with you, then the second we get back you have to go back to your own body." Caroline pointed at him when she said this. "No matter if it takes a week or a day."

"Is that your only stipulation?" Klaus asked looking wide-eyed with surprise that Caroline was so quickly convinced. She was surprised herself.

"I want your word that if I tell you to do something while we are in New York that you don't hesitate to do it." Caroline purposefully remained vague with her terms.

"As long as it's not to kill myself," Klaus said sarcastically. "I pride myself in my self-preservation."

"I wouldn't…" Caroline shook her head as she hadn't had that thought when she made the rule. "I just meant, if I tell you to stop. You'll stop." She tried to better explain herself, but was still a little ruffled by his comment.

"Deal." Klaus said and stuck out his hand. Caroline wasn't happy, but figured this would get Klaus to finally leave her alone. She would be her annoying self and show Klaus what he was getting himself into trying to get close to her. She would make this road trip work to her liking.

She took his hand and wasn't surprised when he kissed it instead of shaking it to make the pact.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning." Klaus said and was quickly off in the opposite direction.

Caroline watched for a second then turned back toward the grill. She walked back in and headed straight for Bonnie. She was leaning in to Jamie, a smile plastered across her face. Caroline mumbled an 'excuse us' to Jamie before tearing Bonnie from his side and pulling her friend into the girl's bathroom with her. She locked the door and turned on Bonnie.

"What is going on with you?" Caroline asked staring her friend down. Bonnie leaned against the sink and crossed her arms.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Bonnie said as if this was entirely normal behavior to be dragged into a bathroom by your friend.

"First, you stick Klaus in Tyler's body, killing Tyler. Then you run around town erasing people's memories for Klaus and become his messenger for him? Did it really matter that Matt told people about Klaus being in Tyler's body? Everyone hates him, but that certainly wouldn't do more than make them hate him more. We still don't know how many connections he has and we can't exactly kill him, because that will now kill all of us." She gestured to her fangs to make a point. "And when did you suddenly become Klaus' little servant girl anyways?" Caroline was yelling, even the space was small enough to hear a whisper in. The bar had music going though and she knew no one would hear unless they were leaning against the door and she couldn't hear anyone's heartbeat close enough to the door to be doing so.

"First of all Caroline," Bonnie said calmly, looking at ease. "I'm not doing any of this for Klaus, nor am I his 'little servant girl'. Putting him in Tyler's body saved everyone's lives, as I tried to explain to you before you kicked me out of your house; and I didn't mean to kill Tyler in the process. Secondly, I hate him just as much as you all do, but I still have to get him back in his own body whenever he gives me the chance, because I can't stand seeing him in Tyler's body either and I had to heal Klaus' true form from the effects of the oak before I could even consider getting Klaus out of Tyler." She started to get angrier. "Thirdly, I didn't erase Matt's memory for Klaus. I erased it to protect myself."

Caroline tilted her head and gave Bonnie a scrupulous look.

"But no one would blame you for helping Klaus. It saved them. Why would you not want people to know it was you? That seems silly." Caroline said trying to make Elena and herself seem more forgiving than they had been when discussing it before. Bonnie's words had eased her mind until the last comment.

"It wasn't to erase his memory of seeing Klaus. I didn't mean to erase that much. My magic isn't as exact as compelling them to forget can be. I only meant to erase him seeing me putting a spell on Damon, because I don't want people to know that I have control over him now. Matt came over to Elena's just as I had cornered Damon; and he walked in on what I was doing. He didn't remember seeing Klaus, so I had no way of knowing that's what I erased. Matt just kept talking about being at the tomb and suddenly being at Elena's, so I filled in the blank with what I thought happened. I didn't know Klaus was stupid enough to stay in that place. I figured you found it empty and gave Matt the car so you could mourn in peace." Bonnie had taken Caroline's hand and was seemingly trying to comfort her.

"Why are you trying to control Damon, not that I'm complaining, but doesn't that go against free-will and stuff?" Caroline was bewildered that Bonnie would go that far, even though Bonnie had always hated Damon and Damon was the reason her mom was a vampire. Okay, Caroline wasn't really that confused by the why, but was afraid of what this meant for Bonnie. She seemed to be taking things into her own hands lately without really consulting the others first. That was not like Bonnie.

"Oh, I have plans for him, but unfortunately you knowing kind of hinders what I'm doing so." Bonnie suddenly looked serious as she gripped Caroline harder. "Don't worry, I can control it now."

Bonnie seemed happy at that thought and smirked at her friend, making Caroline even more nervous at what Bonnie might be doing to her. Caroline wanted to pull away and run before Bonnie could do anything, but was distracted by the fog that entered her mind suddenly.

When Caroline looked up at her reflection in the mirror, she freaked herself out not expecting to see herself. She didn't remembering going into the bathroom, how did she? But then it came to her. She slowly remembered the conversation with Klaus and then needing to go to the bathroom to wash her hand of the Klaus kiss like Elena would be able to see it on her knuckles if she didn't. She left the bathroom, waved at Bonnie and sat down with Elena again.

"You'll never guess who was outside. I should have had you come outside and see for yourself, but he was gone before I even thought of it. Klaus decided to make an appearance." Caroline stuck her tongue out and then grabbed a fry from the plate in front of her.

"What did he want?" Elena asked looking slightly amused. "He isn't trying to burn down the town or something, is he? I really can't put up with any more of his crap, especially for the rest of eternity. I'm glad that me being, you know, that he'll leave me alone now. I'm no good to him anymore and I didn't do it to myself so it's not like he can blame me like he did Katherine."

Caroline nodded agreeing with Elena. Klaus was definitely much less of a threat to the town, not like someone else was. She tried to think of who that was, but couldn't seem to remember. She shrugged to herself and ate another fry.

"I don't know how to explain this, but I don't want to lie to you about it." Caroline started and stared down at her half finished burger. "Klaus asked me for my help just now."

"Doing what?" Elena was now more than amused. She was intrigued and looked like she was focused on every word Caroline had to say.

"He wants me to go to New York with him and help dagger his sister. Which to be honest, I think the girl kind of deserves. She's the reason you're, you know, and that Matt nearly died. Plus, she changed the theme of my dance." Caroline scrunched up her nose over the last words. It was stupid, but she did still hate the girl for messing with her senior year dance.

"Are you going to go then?" Elena asked, sounding like she already knew the answer.

"I've never been to New York."

"Caroline!" Elena screeched.

"What? I know it's selfish, but I haven't and he has been so annoyingly attached to me for a while now. Maybe he'll see who I really am and go running. I can make this work so he'll leave me alone." Caroline said quickly defending herself. "Plus, I'm not exactly safe here right now. Maybe a little time away will give people time to forget about me being a threat."

"You make it sound like your leaving forever." Elena said a little sad.

"No, just like a day or two. I still have to finish senior year and graduate with everyone. I still want to do that." Caroline pushed the food away and pulled out her wallet. Elena had already put money out on the table and Caroline added to it, making sure that they over-tipped Matt. They both said goodbye to Matt and went to head back to Elena's.

When Caroline was saying goodbye to Elena and getting into her own car, Elena stopped her.

"Do you think Klaus is really as bad as he acts?" Elena said curiously. "I mean, do you think he can't change?"

Caroline rolled her eyes, seeing the soppy love driven side of Elena's mind, the one that tended to blind her too often. Caroline would never admit to having the same problem, even though she did.

"He's selfish. Even if he had other qualities, that's his biggest problem. That's what has ruined our lives, Elena. I can't forget that." Caroline said evenly and got into her own car. She waved by to her friend and then headed home. She needed to pack after all. The selfish Hybrid was taking her to New York.


	6. New York

By far my longest chapter, so let's keep this short. Enjoy!

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 6: New York

Sleep didn't come easy or stay very long. Caroline was up at six getting showered and ready to go on a trip that she was guiltily excited for. It was like her brain had split into two personalities lately. One was willing to do anything to make Klaus hurt as much as she did; the other was curious and adventurous. She kept making lists in her head of all the things she was going to do to annoy Klaus on the trip, but then she would back out of them, not wanting to ruin her first time going to New York city by coming home with a broken neck. Although, the plan to attack Rebekah may lead to that any way since she was going to New York to subdue her.

While curling her hair she went over what she had packed in her suitcase. It had been a remarkably small bag with two outfits and one dress. She had added pajamas as an afterthought and then wondered what sleeping conditions were going to be like. Luckily for her she had made Klaus promise that what she says goes. So sleeping conditions could be made where separate rooms were involved.

She was just debating over bringing a second pair of boots and a pair of heels to go with her blue cotton dress when she saw someone standing in the corner of her room. She jumped back and kicked her desk chair at the surprise of seeing Klaus in her room.

"Please tell me you've just come through the window that I had stupidly left open?" Caroline cried, glad that her mother had already left for work and wasn't going to come investigating the noise she just made.

"I've been here long enough to know you have given your shoes all names." Klaus said with a smirk. "I especially appreciate the Manolo's you've lovingly called 'Blah from Niklaus'."

"They were the ones you gave me with the gown. It was a play on words." Caroline said sheepishly, chucking the heels into her suit case and closing it.

"I realized that. It was clever." Klaus didn't move from his spot in the corner, but watched as Caroline seemed to finish packing and then turned to him.

"So, are we leaving now?" Caroline asked, grabbing her purse and lifting her suitcase up.

"Is that all you are bringing?" Klaus asked scrupulously.

"Yes," Caroline answered giving him a look of curiosity. "This isn't exactly going to be a long trip, right?"

"Hmm," was all Klaus said and took Caroline's suitcase from her hand. Caroline headed out to her driveway only to stop at the sight of the vehicle in front of her. She had expected to see Kol's Bentley again, but was thoroughly surprised by the Honda Civic in her driveway. It was a navy blue with dark tinted windows and Caroline nearly laughed at the normalcy of the car.

"You coming, Love?" Klaus called from the driver's side door as Caroline hadn't moved from her spot while Klaus had packed her suitcase in the trunk.

"Yeah," Caroline said still in a bit of a shock from the car. "Just wasn't expecting to drive to New York. I figured we'd be flying."

"This is more covert and gives off the feeling that we are actually on the run, should we be followed." Klaus said as if he was expecting Caroline to question the vehicle. "Plus, it's a hybrid."

Caroline laughed at that. It would figure that with all his obsessing with making hybrids that he would be attracted to a car with the word in its name.

The awkwardness of a long drive with Klaus didn't set in until they were out on the main highway and hadn't said a word to one another. Music was the only thing that made noise in the car and she had made a move to change the station only once when a weird song from the seventies had played. It was now playing a more popular song that she knew a little of the lyrics to, but did not want to sing out loud to in front of Klaus. Although the thought of singing terribly did float through her mind, if she could annoy him with her off key singing maybe he would like her a little less. It wasn't enough of a threat though and seemed more childish than effective. This only left them in more silence. It was growing too as the distance between where they were going and where they were, got shorter. Caroline calculated on her phone that it was about a six hour drive if there wasn't any traffic and that was a long time in a car with someone she wasn't willing to get along with. Especially since the last time she had gotten into a car with the same person she had basically thrown him under a bus and then walked away like she was queen of the world. She tried not to think about what she had said to him and Klaus gratefully saved her from her own thoughts by speaking.

"I wanted to thank you for coming with me on this trip." He said with a touch of sincerity to his voice. The difference between Tyler and Klaus was now too obvious to Caroline whenever she looked at her ex-boyfriend's body. Klaus held it differently and stood straighter than Tyler, he had a sharper look in his eyes when he stared, and the way he dressed was enough to throw off anyone who thought this was Tyler she was with. Her ex was nowhere near present in that body.

Caroline furrowed her brow at her own thoughts. When had she started referring to Tyler as her ex?

"I couldn't turn down the opportunity to see the city, even if the excuse is a terrible one, it's true." Caroline said and turned away from Klaus, not wanting her mind to wander again about Tyler.

"This is not where I would have taken you had you let me. This city is nowhere near the top of my list." Klaus explained and let his eyes leave the road and make their way to Caroline, giving her the intense stare that he always did when he was forcing the topic of her running away with him.

"What city is your favorite then?" Caroline asked trying to make the conversation friendlier and less smoldering, like his eyes. She could feel them on her as she looked out her passenger window.

"It's not as simple as just choosing one city. It's about what you feel in that city, what you experience. They all have something to offer." Klaus' words flowed wistfully, like a musical note. Caroline remembered the same tone in his voice when he spoke of his human life and made a mental note of it. She liked being able to tell when he was relaying his true feelings to her. She didn't imagine that he would have many tells, but this was definitely one of them. "I probably would have taken you to Athens first, in all honesty. The water, the city, the history, it's all more than I can describe to you."

Klaus seemed to do that thing again where he lost himself in thought and Caroline didn't ask anything else.

When they stopped for gas on the border to New Jersey, Caroline got out of the car to buy a bottle of water to distract her from hunger. Klaus suggested she eat, but she had only frowned at him until he pointed to a cooler in the back seat she hadn't noticed before. It was filled with eight blood bags and she was hungry enough she didn't turn down the offer of having one. While she was drinking, she saw Klaus change the license plate on the back of the Civic, but wasn't surprised by the action. They were 'on the run' and police talk. Their plate numbers could have been all over the country by now looking for them, if Mystic Falls had made it a priority to find them. She finished off the bag and kept an eye on the surrounding area to make sure no one was watching them. Caroline discarded the trash and got back in the car and in no time they had set out again. This time Klaus told another story of being in Brazil which left Caroline to not have to speak much and distracted her enough that she nearly missed how close they were. She could see the city in the horizon. They had gotten there faster than they should have and she was surprised to see the city so soon.

"Wow," she breathed as they got closer. Then her vision was obstructed as they went into a tunnel. She slumped as they did and tried to wait patiently for it to end so she could see the buildings again. It was the middle of the day and everything had been shining brightly in the sunlight. New York had looked alive and ready for her. She wanted to see it more than she had even guessed. When the tunnel ended and she was able to see the buildings again, she basically flattened her face against the window to look up at them all. The view only grew more exciting as they drove. Windows started to light up with advertisements and displays as they headed north, then east. In the middle of the city were crowds of people all rushing around under the moving displays of vibrant colorful lights, and this was just the daytime. It was too much for Caroline to take in and she was having trouble focusing on just one spot to look when they turned down another street to head south and she was distracted by the window façades that portrayed the newest styles and accessories that she had only seen in magazines. There was store after store of name brands that she recognized and it took her a second to realize they were on Fifth Avenue. This was a dream spot for her. This was a street that was known and recognized for its greatness. She was here, in a place she had only dreamed of visiting one day. Klaus went a few blocks, then turned another corner and headed north again. She was confused by the circulatory way they were driving. Was he doing that on purpose?

"Are we trying to avoid someone?" She asked, worried.

"No, I was just enjoying you seeing the sights." He explained as they headed up Sixth Avenue this time. Caroline started to see signs for Central Park when they pulled in front of a large building that looked like something out of a movie. When she saw the words "Ritz-Carlton" on the large flag outside the building her jaw dropped.

"You're kidding!" She said looking at the building with a new fear. This was way more extravagant than two people who were on the run would ever be able to afford and this was not keeping up appearances at all. She suddenly felt like this was a trick. "We are not staying here."

Klaus stopped from getting out of the car and looked back at Caroline.

"Please tell me that was a question and not a statement, because this was the last thing I thought you would be abusing your privilege of control over." Klaus said seriously. He looked like he had swallowed fire. This only made Caroline more freaked out. She had nearly forgotten that she had made him promise he would do as she said while in New York. At least she had that if this turned out badly. He was seemingly going to agree to keep to that promise.

"No, I mean, I was just surprised." She lied and got out of the car. Klaus gave over the keys to a valet and another man got out the suitcases from the trunk. They headed inside and Caroline was even more surprised by the way they were treated. From the front desk to the door to the room a woman complimented and explained all the details of the hotel to them. She even explained that it had been renovated just a few years ago so everything was new and fresh in the rooms, but that didn't give Caroline enough of a heads up to the room and its glory. It was like walking into a house on the top floor of a New York building. A large flowered topped wood dinner table sat to the far left nearly closed off and the living room to the suite was on her right, which the woman explained led to the only bedroom. Caroline grimaced at the "only bedroom" part and gave Klaus a look. He seemed bored, like he couldn't wait for the woman to leave. When she did, she saw the tip he slipped the woman before she went and Caroline was suddenly wondering how much all off this would cost. It certainly wasn't something she could afford.

"This is ridiculous." She turned to Klaus as she said this and put her hands on her hips. "You realize this basically kills any idea that we might be on the run. No person on the run would hide somewhere this expensive or outlandish."

"I don't think it matters where we sleep." Klaus answered simply.

"Uh huh." Caroline huffed. "Is Rebekah even in New York?"

Klaus rolled his eyes at Caroline.

"This wasn't a ploy. The plan is still to capture my sister, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy our time in the city as well." Klaus went looking through a cabinet before finding a crystal glass that held a brown liquid that Caroline could only imagine was bourbon or some other strong alcohol. When he poured a glass, she took it out of his hand and downed it in one go before handing the glass back to him.

"Then I am going to enjoy it." She said as she gagged at the taste of the liquid.

"That's meant to be sipped." Klaus teased and poured more for him.

"And what is with the one room?" She said looking back through the door that showed the corner of a four-post king sized bed. "You know you are sleeping on the couch out here, right?"

"That's your call." He said and took a sip of his drink. "This was all that was available on short notice. So it can't be held against me."

Caroline crossed her arms and looked around the room. It was way more than she had expected and she was feeling a bit weirded out by the fact that every time she looked out a window she could see the top of trees over a large area that was clearly from Central Park.

"So, do we know where Rebekah is now, or what?" Caroline felt a need to get that part over with quickly so she could enjoy herself more not having to worry about how they were going to subdue his sister.

"That will wait until later. She'll be an easier target at night in the city." Klaus seemed at ease with this news, but it only made Caroline more anxious.

"Well, then let's go see the city!" She pulled Klaus up from his seat. "I'm not wasting time here in a hotel room. As nice as it is, it's not why I'm here."

After spending an hour walking around Central Park and getting to see a statue for Alice in Wonderland near a pond full of small toy boats, they headed back toward the tourist center of the city. While walking through Time Square, Caroline explained how she only knew of the place because of TRL, an old music based TV show she had always wanted to see live, but was unfortunately no longer on the air. She was distracted by all the large signs that showed what plays were on Broadway currently and secretly wanted to see one while she was there. She wasn't a huge fan of musicals or plays, but it seemed like one of the things people did when visiting New York and she wanted the full experience. She wondered if maybe she could get away from Klaus for a while and compel someone to let her in to see a play. It was certainly a tempting idea, but nothing that would probably work out. Klaus seemed to want to do whatever she felt like doing and she was not admitting to liking plays to him.

"Where is the Statue of Liberty from here? Is it far? I want to see it." Caroline said and turned toward Klaus. He had been watching her intently and she felt a bit weird when he didn't reply right away, but seemed to give her a thoughtful look.

"It is south of here on a separate island, but we can go there." Klaus said this and he was suddenly back to his normal self. He waved a taxi down, opened the door for her, and a couple minutes later had them on a ferry to the island. Caroline had started pulling out her phone to take pictures of the city and had even gotten a few of herself. At one point Klaus took the phone from her and started to take pictures of her with the Lady Liberty in the background. He even managed to sneak himself into a picture or two with her that she knew she was going to end up deleting later. She took her phone back as they got on the island and while Caroline took her time just staring at the giant thing, someone randomly came up to her.

"Beautiful girl here alone? No, you must have a friend, yes?" A man with sun burnt skin and a terrible European accent of some sort came up to Caroline and she raised an eyebrow at the guy. She glanced around and noticed that she was in fact alone, Klaus had disappeared. Without even thinking she stared the stranger straight in the eye and deeply replied to his comment.

"Go away." It wasn't a statement, it was compulsion and that was why she was surprised when the guy didn't go anywhere, but tried harder. He was wearing several twine bracelets and she recognized a vervain flower around one of them. No wonder her compulsion didn't work.

"Oh, I can be your good friend, yes, Angel? Let me take you around de city and show you lights." He was dead serious as he flirted and she was freaked by the idea that this guy actually thought that was a way of getting someone to hang out with him. It was so desperate she wanted to laugh. She stepped back from the guy, but he followed her step.

"I'm not alone thanks, and I wouldn't want the company any way. So seriously, back off." She said and shrugged the guy away. He followed her as she tried walking away again.

"I see no one, blonde girl, but me. You can come with me." He grabbed at her hand and Caroline pulled hers away faster than eyes could catch.

She was about to hit the guy so hard that his jaw would break when she felt an arm go around her waist and pull her in close. She recognized Tyler's body before it even registered what was going on.

"You all right, love?" Klaus said in her ear, but loud enough that the stranger could hear. "Is he bothering you? Should I kill him?"

Caroline snorted at the last part. Even if he had creeped her out, the stranger didn't deserve to be killed. He could have been a serial killer for all she knew, but then look at the company she was currently keeping and leaning up against.

The stranger started to back away slowly like he wasn't trying to make any sudden movements around them. "My apologies, Beautiful." He said and the glare that Klaus gave him would have killed him on the spot if looks had the ability to do such a thing.

"That wasn't necessary." Caroline said as she pulled away from Klaus. He was still glaring over at the retreating man. Caroline looked down at her hands and realized she was holding Klaus' still. She went to pull her hand away, and Klaus gripped it more firmly.

"Let go of my hand and I may actually go kill him." He said with such a serious tone that Caroline clung to his hand with equal strength.

"Don't be ridiculous. He isn't worth it." She said trying to calm Klaus down. "He wasn't a threat to me, anyway." Caroline tried to make the point that she wasn't exactly an innocent little girl.

"We're not in Mystic Falls any more. Don't be polite to vermin like that. They take advantage of your ingenuousness. He knew enough to have vervain on him; he might have some way of knowing what you are and how to restrain you as well." Klaus pulled Caroline along over to a bench. After a few moments he released her hand and they sat in silence while he seemed to even himself out.

"Thank you though." She said and picked at her fingernails, not meeting his eyes when she said it. "I didn't think that I needed to be careful here, but you're right. Who knows how many people know about our world."

"In a thousand years of running from my father, I learned he wasn't the only one out there after me. It's not something you normally get to learn the easy way." Klaus' words were a lot less stressed then they had been before and Caroline was glad for it.

They left the island and headed back to the main part of the city. Caroline wasn't as excited to see it as she had been before, but her curiosity got the better of her eventually and she asked if they could see Grand Central Station. It was the last thing they would be able to do since the sun was now setting and Caroline knew the evening would be spent going after Rebekah.

As they headed down into the station, Caroline kept a close eye on Klaus. She was curious as to where he had gone earlier when the guy had showed up, even letting her mind believe for a second that he had planned that scene before realizing that the vervain would have made that less likely. Money could have been involved, however, and that could have motivated someone to do a lot worse. She could have just asked Klaus where he went, but she didn't want to seem like she cared every time he left her side and this left her torn as to what to think.

She was distracted by the largeness of the room she entered. She had seen this area in a film before and knew she was in the right place when she saw a four sided clock above a round ticket station in the middle of the room that looked closed. She got a picture of it and saw as Klaus drifted to the other side of the room. He walked up a staircase and looked up out of the large glass windows at the now night sky. She turned back to the ticket booth to get one more picture of it and noticed a reflection of a blonde in the bronze structure. Only this was not her reflection, but that of someone she knew.

Rebekah was standing behind her, glaring at her in a way that was only capable by the Original sister.

Caroline took her picture as if she hadn't noticed anything and then slowly turned to head over to Klaus. When she turned she looked out of the corner of her eye, only to see that Rebekah was no longer standing behind her. Caroline tried not looking like she was rushing as she went over to Klaus and put her arm through his. He seemed slightly caught off guard, but didn't question her movements.

"Your sister is here." She said so low that had he been human he would have never heard it. Especially not with the crowd noise that was buzzing all around them.

"I think we should head out, Car. The movie will be starting soon." Caroline had to freeze her features. She was petrified at the way Klaus had suddenly seemed to perfectly mimic Tyler's way of talking. For a second, she had let herself think it was Tyler before reality smacked her out of it.

"Yeah, let's go." She replied happily, but didn't feel the joy at all.

He leaned into her hair and whispered in her ear while they walked. Anyone going past them would have thought they were just flirting with one another.

"Just follow my lead. I want to get her into a more private place." He murmured. His lips just barely touching the shell of her ear and her body betrayed her as it shivered lightly.

They walked down 42nd street toward and then past a small park. Klaus never once backed off of Caroline and she tried not to look annoyed by this or when he started to kiss her neck as they walked.

"Tyler!" She screeched when she felt his lips. She wanted to smack Klaus, but his words in her ear kept her from raising her hand. She wasn't sure how she was able to keep up this ruse when she wanted to pull away so fiercely.

"She's following us." He was saying it between kisses, obviously having a better view of what was going on behind them. Caroline was struggling with herself at this point. She wasn't sure the smile on her face was as forced as it had been before. Her left hand was knotted into the front of his shirt, while her other rested on his shoulder. His arms were snaked around her, pulling her in close as they walked.

With no indication of what he was doing, he pushed her down into an alley way. He moved her up against a brick wall where shadows were falling all around her. His lips were suddenly all over her, kissing her lips, neck, and collar bone. She was dazed by the action and was having trouble with the decision to push him away. She couldn't seem to get her arms to agree with her brain to stop him.

"K-Tyler, we're going to miss the movie." She said it with an airy, far away sound in her voice. She wasn't sure why they had gone down the alley way or why she had stopped him, but she did feel the shock of his lips leaving her neck. It was like cold water suddenly rushed through her veins as she sobered up.

"So?" Was all she heard Klaus say and she was not as upset as she should have been that she knew it was him doing this to her.

"Really? An alley way in the middle of a busy city? You two are all class." Rebekah's voice rang out and Caroline pulled herself away finally. She was embarrassed at being caught, but was comforted by the fact that Rebekah didn't know it was Klaus that Caroline was with.

Klaus moved and positioned Caroline behind him so that it looked like he was protecting her from Rebekah. It was something Tyler would probably have done and Caroline knew that was the only reason why he was doing it. He was playing the part and this made Caroline realize how stupid she was that she even went through with this. She was letting Klaus be Tyler. It was the worst idea she'd ever heard of.

"How are you even alive?" Rebekah asked, clearly disturbed by the possibility that everyone Klaus had made had survived when she had seen her brother die with her own eyes.

"I don't know." Klaus said evenly. "But I'd like to stay that way."

Rebekah laughed. "Look at you two living out your happy ending." Her voice lowered as she stepped down the alley toward them. Caroline noticed that they were being backed into a wall.

"Happy ending?" Caroline rang out, trying to distract herself and Rebekah with her words. "Elena is a vampire, Matt nearly died, and we are on the run from our own home town. How is that in anyway happy?"

"Yes, I was happy to see that the football player made it out all right, and as far as Elena is concerned, she got off easy. Her only worry now will be the Salvatore brothers. I can't wait until she finally makes her choice." Rebekah seemed to remember who she was talking to and changed her outlook. "Not that you two care, being on the run you can do whatever you please now."

Rebekah had walked right up to Klaus and poked him in the chest when she said this. He didn't waste a second, he lashed out at her. He pulled her back and slammed her face into the wall. She blocked her head with her arms and turned back on Klaus, baring her fangs; she shoved him against the opposite wall and twisted his arm back. He swung with the other arm and grabbed her leg, lifting her off the ground and throwing her to the end wall of the alley.

Caroline stepped back to the end of the alley where people would be able to see in and tried to block the view of what was going on as the two siblings continued to attack one another. When Klaus had his sister around the throat and was about to break her neck, Rebekah seemed to come to some realization. She met his eyes and squinted as he paused to look down at her.

"Nik?" Rebekah asked, and Klaus broke her neck. Of course, he hadn't brought the dagger with him so this was the only way to keep her subdued for now. Caroline didn't get a chance to say anything however as she was suddenly grabbed from behind. She squeaked out a noise that caught Klaus' attention and he looked up to see her held up by the throat.

"Elijah," Klaus said angrily and dropped his sister.

Elijah looked surprised for a second, but then came to his normal cool head as he looked on. "Niklaus." He looked back and forth between Caroline and Klaus before realizing the situation that was at hand.

"Let Caroline go." Klaus said with his usual disdain for being out done. Elijah seemed only entertained by the threat.

"Interesting company you are keeping now." Elijah said into Caroline's ear. "My brother in your boyfriend's body, I assume you knew it was my brother."

When Elijah looked at Caroline and she only struggled against his hand, he smiled.

"I thought so." Elijah turned his attention back to his brother.

"Elijah," Klaus made the name sound like a warning.

"As upset as you might be. I can't let you take Rebekah this time." Elijah's calm words seemed to ease the tension Caroline was feeling, and she vaguely wondered if he had this ability somehow with the thousand years he had lived as a vampire. It fit his character.

"Really, brother? Do you think threatening Caroline will honestly get me to abandon my right to Rebekah's punishment?" Klaus didn't move from his spot in the alley way, but seemed to straighten up as he spoke to get the upper hand on his brother. Elijah didn't even seem to notice.

"She thought you were dead, and until this moment so did I. Do you really think that she would have done what she did otherwise?" Logic seemed to be on Elijah's side and Caroline was seriously starting to panic that this was not going to end well. Not to mention she would have to deal with the aftermath of whatever condition the two left things in and she wasn't as experienced with clean up like these two were. She was surprised no one had noticed them yet. It was like people just didn't want to see what was right in front of them.

"Klaus," Caroline tried to get out, but was having trouble using her vocal chords with Elijah's hands wrapped around them.

"Well, if you won't let Rebekah go, I'll just have to do this." Elijah's words had little time to make sense in Caroline's mind as she was brought down to the ground. With a swift move and a sharp pain in her neck everything around her went black.


	7. Feelings

So, this chapter comes to you with a little lyrical inspiration, because I really like this song and was listening to it when I was writing this chapter. Somehow Itunes knew what I was trying to say and gave me a helping hand by playing it. So here is the most important part to me and this chapter. (Yes, it's from a Disney movie. Shh, no judging!) Thank you again for the reviews! _  
_

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_I thought my heart had learned its lesson_  
_It feels so good when you start out_  
_My head is screaming get a grip, girl_  
_Unless you're dying to cry your heart out_

I Won't Say (I'm in love) from Disney's Hercules

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_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 7: Feelings

When Caroline came to and sat up, she felt like she had slept on a rock. This was very confusing for her since she was lying down and tucked into a very nice bed. Then she remembered how her neck had been broken by Elijah and she flopped back down on the pillows in resentment. Her head ached then. It was in pain for two reasons, one physical, the other mental. She needed to stop making predictions on how her days would go as she kept being correct about them. She didn't want to be right about her future physical pain anymore. She wanted to be right about future non-pain, physical or mental. She had basically set herself up for it though by agreeing to come on this trip, so she could only blame herself.

That thinking made her pause. How interesting that she so quickly let Klaus off the hook for his part in this.

When she looked around the room she found a very intriguing site of Klaus being asleep in one of the matching chair sets, a book resting on his chest. It was basically like staring at Tyler. If Tyler slept like he was too stiff from worry to sleep, but that look could have easily been caused by the uncomfortable chair.

Caroline watched him for a few minutes before realizing what she was doing and got out of bed to escape into the bathroom. She noticed that her boots had been on the floor, but that she was in the same clothing. It was a small, and yet, comforting fact that he didn't try anything while she was knocked out. She looked at her face in the bathroom mirror and then checked that her neck was in fact still in the right shape before splashing water on her face. The water seemed to wake up something in her, a curiosity, telling her to look for answers where she had none about the early evening. Her mind raced with an idea as she pieced together the little that she knew. She was back in the hotel room with Klaus. She was alive and although she hadn't checked the rest of the rooms, she was sure that Elijah had gotten Rebekah away from Klaus. This all meant one thing.

Klaus had picked her.

This shouldn't have been a surprise to her. It shouldn't have been a big deal at all. Klaus clearly liked her or he wouldn't have tried so hard to win her over. He wouldn't have saved her life more than once, taught her to watch out for herself and not be caught off guard in the big city, or any of the other crazy things he had tried to do to make her fall all over him. So why did she suddenly feel like she was, in fact, falling all over him? Not because he chose to protect her over his own sister. That was ridiculous. Elijah had morals. He wasn't going to do anything rash, why would he? In fact, breaking Caroline's neck was surely as far as he would go, because if Elijah really understood his brother then he would be pissing his own brother off by trying to really kill her. Klaus would have been livid about that. More livid than losing the chance to get his sister, right? But that was exactly the problem. Klaus must have gotten upset enough to bargain in order for Caroline to be safe. That was the only explanation as to why she was back in the hotel room.

She leaned hard against the bathroom sink, trying to find another way that this was okay. That this meant very little to her, but all she could come out with in the end was that she was grateful that he loved her enough to choose to save her life.

'Oh God' she thought with a sinking feeling in her stomach. 'That's what it means. He _loves_ me.'

She shuddered at the thought, but the shudder felt more like a shiver, a happy shiver.

She actually had feelings for Klaus. Somehow the mother-killing, boyfriend-body-stealing, psychopath had actually gotten under her skin.

This trip had not been a good idea she realized too late. This was exactly the opposite of what this trip was supposed to do. She was supposed to repel Klaus. She was supposed to hate Klaus; every fiber of her being screamed that. Yet, there was that one little voice that said otherwise. She liked that he liked her. She liked that he kept doing things to go out of his way to protect her. She liked him.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Caroline said out loud and she crushed her hands flat against her face to block out the shame of it.

Klaus came through the door a second later looking alarmed.

"You all right, Love?" He asked with concern written on his face. She turned around quickly.

"Fine." Caroline smiled around the word, and she inwardly scolded herself for it. She was not supposed to be smiling at him. She should be glaring at him, at all times. This was not a person she should like. He just wasn't.

He had brought a bag of blood in with him and she smiled again at the kind gesture. Then checked her features and merely said a light "thank you, good idea". She turned the bag over and started to drink before she recognized the hospital name on the bag. It was some place off in Maryland. It was the same hospital name the bags had in the gift basket of roses she had thought she'd gotten from Elena a few days back. There was no way everyone was getting blood from the same place. The basket had to have come from him and not Elena like she had thought.

She couldn't believe it.

She walked past him and out into the bedroom, then very hurriedly decided she needed to be away from there as well. She ended up in the living room where an old plate of half eaten food sat and a bottle of vodka remained nearby. It made her wonder who he drank with the meal and if they made it out alive.

'See,' she told herself. 'Those are the kinds of thoughts you should be associating with him, not the love-y, dove-y kind that belonged nowhere near him.' The thought reminded her of the conversation she had with Elena just before she'd gone home. It made her hate Elena. She could be blamed for putting the thought into Caroline's head that Klaus was worthy of her attention.

She grabbed the bottle from the table and took a long swig of the liquid. She winced a little at the taste, but managed a second gulp before setting the bottle down.

"You sure?" Klaus asked while watching her. Hysterical, Caroline answered him laughing.

"Yeah, never better, just wanted something to ease off the pain is all. I think I should probably get more sleep. Sleep is a very good idea. I need to rest and then I'll be much better off in the morning." Caroline took another long draw from the bottle and then decided to take the bottle in with her to the room. She closed the door loudly behind her, cutting them off and sat down on the bed. She put the bottle to her lips again and chugged for a few seconds. A quarter of the bottle was all that was left when she finally decided that she had drunk enough. On an empty stomach the alcohol was hitting her rather fast.

She was losing it. That was the only explanation for her actions that she could think of. She was about to lay down and actually attempt to sleep like she had said when another thought came to her. She hadn't thanked Klaus for saving her again. Although, it bothered her that she was turned into some distressed damsel whenever he was around. He did save her though and she needed to say something. For whatever reason, she decided that this was as good a time as any to do it.

"Hey Klaus," she said and opened the door to the bedroom to find him lounging on the couch with the same book now in his hands. He raised an eye brow at her sudden appearance, giving her a suspicious look.

She walked over to him and crouched down so she was eye level with him.

"You didn't get Rebekah, did you?" she asked straight forward. A stray thought made her wonder if her breath reeked of vodka.

"No." He said perplexed. He seemed at a loss of what to make of her proceedings since he had woken up.

"You brought me here instead?" She asked, nodding at his previous answer.

"Yes." He said with more power behind it, like he was trying to get to the point.

"Thank you then." She said and kissed him on the lips. The kiss lasted longer than she had meant it to. It was suppose to be just a peck, but it somehow got drawn out into a lingering touch.

She jumped back then and headed straight back into her room. She was even more uneasy with herself now that she had done this and she blamed the alcohol for it.

When she crashed down onto the bed, she was happy that her brain turned off and sent her quickly to sleep. She knew that she was going to regret everything in the morning and she barely did anything at all.

-x-

A heavy feeling came over Caroline as she awoke slowly, fully rested, a second time. Her body had been overworked while she slept off not only the broken neck, but also the vodka she had drunk. The bottle was no longer on the table next to her and this gave her the sneaking suspicion that she had not remained alone in the room all night. She scoffed. He clearly didn't understand boundaries. When she looked up from depth of her pillows, she also noted that the bathroom looked moist like someone had showered in it. The room even smelled like it. This reminded her of her own grimy feeling skin and she got up to shower as well. She needed to wash yesterday's events out of her hair.

When she stepped out of the shower, she felt a thousand times better. She had decided she was going to ignore the little outburst she'd had in the middle of the night and pretend like she was still mad at Klaus for what had happened to her. She was especially going to ignore the realization she had come to during her little outburst, if only to avoid having another one. It was the only way to remain sane.

She felt very serene and calm as she walked fully dressed into the living room, only to freeze in the doorway. Klaus was lounging at a small desk in the living room. His hair was still wet, his chest bare, and his eyes closed. When they slowly opened and registered Caroline in the room, he made a sour face then got up from the chair.

"Sorry, love. You caught me deep in thought." He pulled on a shirt then, and Caroline was finally able to avert her eyes.

"Oh, it happens." Caroline said trying to find her brain and switch it back on. "So are we leaving today?"

Klaus seemed to keep his eyes on carpet when he spoke. "I was hoping to get one more day here."

"After yesterday, I don't really feel like sight-seeing." Caroline explained, holding off on having to use his promise against him. If she was being completely honest with herself, she didn't want to leave the city either. Not even if it meant staying there with him and the problematic feelings she was having.

Klaus looked up, but his eyes didn't reach hers as he slipped something from his back pocket. They looked like tickets to Caroline and her eyes went large at the sight of them.

'He didn't' She thought to herself as she walked over to him, but before she even had them in her hands she knew what they were. He had bought her tickets to see the Phantom of The Opera on Broadway for tonight. It wasn't the original cast, but it was still one of her favorites and it was on Broadway. There was no way to turn that down.

"When did you get these?" She asked sheepishly. When she looked up at him she noticed that his eyes still weren't meeting hers and were focused on a bookshelf at the other side of the room.

"Last night, after you helped me, I figured I could use them as a peace offering." Caroline wanted to be shocked and happy, but she was distracted by the irritating fact that he wouldn't look at her.

This was Klaus. This was the guy who practically demanded her attention and never backed down from a staring contest with anyone, who feared nothing. Now he couldn't even meet her at eye level. What was with that?

"So, one more day then," she said looking at the tickets. Klaus seemed to relax a bit at her words.

"Only if you want to," he offered courteously.

"Yeah, like I'm going to want to leave now." She said and smirked. "Nice move."

She meant it sarcastically, but it didn't quite come out with that intention behind it. It sounded almost like a compliment to her and she hastily added.

"So we have almost a whole day to kill before the play. Any ideas?"

"I had one." Klaus said and his eyes met hers for a few seconds before he picked up a pamphlet from the foyer table that showed a group of girls giggling and carrying several shopping bags.

"Shopping?" Caroline brightened at the idea. Internally she was scolding herself again. She was letting him win her over now. She was being putty in his hands and she was seemingly okay with this. Her thoughts were turning in the same direction they had the night before.

She had lasted exactly five minutes before crumbling. She was not keeping her own promise and had the distinct feeling she was going to regret it.

The shopping trip slowly escalated into a shopping spree. Caroline had started off just looking at things and only touching something if she had really considered it an option to buy. Klaus had noticed it. He ended buying her several things just because she merely "looked longingly at it". He bought her a scarf from Burberry, a Prada purse, and a pair of sunglasses from Chanel. Plus, there had been some shirts and dresses from a clothing store that he'd only bought after she had modeled a few for him. A total fluke had gotten her to do it and also possibly because he had dared her to. It was something she was not going to admit to ever having done if anyone asked.

When Caroline was walking past a building with solid marble sides, she noticed there reflection in it. She looked like an heiress with a servant boy at her side. A nicely dressed servant boy with a great physique, but a servant none-the-less, then she realized why she felt that way. It was still Tyler's body. Even with all the ways Klaus held himself differently, she was still with Tyler.

She turned on Klaus and pulled out her phone. "Wait, I want to get a picture of this." She said and pointed the camera at him. The look on his face was perfect as she clicked the photo. He looked so un-amused by her sudden need for picture taking. It made her laugh inwardly as she kept walking.

A dark thought occurred to her as she looked down at the picture. Was the reason why she was able to so easily get along with Klaus, because he was in Tyler's body? She'd had this thought before when she had agreed to stay and talk with him at his place two days ago and had brushed it off then. Now that she was having these feelings toward him she couldn't seem to send the thought from her mind.

"Food," Caroline said suddenly. She had stopped right outside of Tiffany's and was making a mental note that this spot was from a movie, but was not happy at the romantic aspect of it. She needed to distract her mind and food would definitely help that. She needed to quench her thirst, and thus, her emotions from going all crazy. "I think we passed a café with outside seating."

Caroline led the way as Klaus followed to the place they had passed a few blocks back. They were seated in no time and Klaus filled up both extra chairs at their table with her bags.

"This was much needed." She said sitting down in the sunlight. Shopping had erased some of her worry, but for all the wrong reasons.

The bearded waiter came over to the table and Caroline picked up her menu. She looked it over a second, then looked up when she realized no greetings had come from the server. He was looking back and forth quizzically between Klaus and herself. Klaus just tilted his head at the guy. Caroline squinted through the sunlight and then had the sense to sniff the air.

It smelled lightly of earth and sweat. There was something else there as well, an inhuman smell she knew faintly.

"Sorry about that, just thought I knew you from somewhere." The waiter smiled down at both of them. He moved effortlessly into server-mode and Caroline barely heard a word as she looked at Klaus. Had he compelled him to forget something?

"Water, please." She answered at the perfect point, even though she couldn't have any way of knowing since she was not looking or listening to the guy. Klaus asked for some foreign beer and the waiter left them.

"What was that?" she asked Klaus now that they were alone.

"You couldn't tell?" Klaus answered back looking down at his own menu.

"No," but the second the word had come out she remembered something. When she had been captured once by werewolves and held captive to get Tyler back. That was where she had smelled it. Her cage had reeked of it. "Werewolf."

Klaus nodded at her low words. "I think he was confused as to why I would be hanging out with a vampire. I can't say I'd blame him since he doesn't know what I really am, even in this form."

"Let's hope he didn't recognize Tyler." Caroline commented and fell silent. Klaus gave her a long look before going back to his menu.

By the time the meal was over, Klaus had explained what had happened the previous night and had put Caroline's mind at ease of him attempting to go after his sister again. Apparently Elijah and Klaus had worked out some agreement that Rebekah was allowed to stay conscious as long as she was returned to Mystic Falls where Klaus could keep an eye on her. Caroline knew that this was in Klaus' favor as everyone in Mystic Falls was not going to be so forgiving to the Original sister. She would be an outcast in the town she was being forced to return to. It was a better sentence than anything she thought Klaus had initially intended.

Caroline finished up her last day in New York going to the Empire State Building before they headed back to the hotel to get ready for the musical they were going to see. Both dressed formally. Caroline had taken a simple red dress and re-invented it into a more fitted Grecian style gown with a gold ribbon from one of the boxes the clothes had come in. It clung nicely on her curves and she pulled out her 'Blah from Niklaus' heels to match the new Prada clutch she had. Caroline was happy when she showed up to see that they hadn't been the only ones to dress up for the play. She had been slightly worried about it on the way over.

"You are stunning, you know." Klaus' voice found her ear.

She tried to look doubtfully at him, but she had secretly taken the compliment to heart.

"It's true. You have every eye in this room on you." Klaus said as they stepped into the lobby before being taken to their seats. She tried not to notice how right he was that men and even some women were staring at her. Hadn't they ever seen a blonde in a red dress before? This was New York; she was nothing new to this town, with the exception that the town happened to be new to her.

The play went by way too fast for her. Before she knew it she was back in the hotel room with Klaus and they were packing to head back to Mystic Falls. He had gotten his extra day there and she had gotten the memories of a city she knew she would want to return to again.

The drive back had been a lot easier for them than the drive in had been. They both had been able to keep up conversation with no trouble and Caroline even relented some embarrassing facts about herself that she normally didn't let anyone outside her group of friends know.

When they got closer to the town, Caroline could see the sun starting to rise in the east. She wanted something to drink and they had finished all the blood bags already from the cooler so she knew the only option was for them to stop at a little coffee shop. The place was five miles out of town, but it was the only one that would be open this early in the morning, so they bee lined for it.

It wasn't busy when Caroline went in and ordered two coffees; leaving Klaus in the car in case anyone recognized him. She paid and was about to head out when someone came in through the door to the place.

It was the new Sheriff, the one that had replaced Caroline's mother when the Council had found out about her mother covering up for her. He was reeking of vervain and was wearing a big grin, just for her.

"Hello, Caroline." The pleasant voice of the officer rang in her ears and she planted her feet in a fight or flight stance.

"Sheriff," she gritted out between her teeth.

"Nice to see you are back in town. You're mother will be happy to hear it. She's been worried about you." The Sheriff spoke so smoothly, she wondered what he was playing at. Why was he being polite instead of pulling out a vervain gun, or worse a real gun with wooden bullets, and shooting her where she stood? She didn't like it.

"Well, I'm safe and sound now." Caroline answered. "But in a hurry, so excuse me."

She stepped around the Sheriff, but he moved back. She tensed waiting for him to make a move so she could counter it, but the move never came. Instead, he held the door open for her.

"Remember, this is your senior year. Don't let these trips of yours keep you from good grades. You want to graduate with a good enough GPA for college." The Sheriff forewarned her as she stepped outside, he even sounded serious.

"Uh, right. Thanks, I'll keep an eye on them." Caroline said befuddled at what just happened.

Had Klaus been right? Had he been able to get to everyone in town and make them forget about what Alaric had told them?

Her mind played over the scene again as she walked to the car and she turned back to the coffee shop and looked in. No, Caroline distinctly remembered the smell of vervain coming off of the Sheriff. That was the smell of vervain being put in his system for weeks. He was in no way able to be compelled.

"Klaus did you ever compel the new Sheriff to forget about us?" She asked when she got into the car. "You know, to forget about Tyler and I being a danger."

Klaus had a pained look to his eyes again as he answered.

"He was always walking in a cloud of vervain. I never risked being spotted by him. I was getting around to cornering and killing him when I got back and most of the Council had returned to being ignorant of the vampire problem in this town. I liked your mother as Sheriff, she and I had an understanding." Klaus answered like he was expecting the question. He must have seen the whole situation that just played out from inside the car.

"Then what the hell is going on?" Caroline asked staring out the car's front window. She was suddenly very determined to see her friends. She did not like the feeling she was getting from this encounter.

* * *

I also wanted to apologize for any mistakes in this chapter my beta (aka my sister) is upset with me and wouldn't look it over. Not that my stories are ever flawless. I have issues with double checking fanfiction mistakes. I dunno, it just... Sorry, rambling. Hope you enjoyed. Please review! (Even if it is to criticize my terrible writing. :P)


	8. Minor Problem

I am so sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out. I don't know where the time went. I really shouldn't have more than a week between each chapter. Sorry again. I hope you all like it at least. :)

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 8: Minor Problem_  
_

After having been dropped off by Klaus at her own home and crashing immediately on her own bed for about six hours, Caroline was awoken by a text from Elena. It was asking her if she was going to be home soon and when Caroline replied that she already was, Elena immediately called her.

"Hello?" Caroline chirped.

"Please tell me everything that happened! I want to know every detail. Was he overbearing? Did he try to win your affection?" Elena's voice rang in Caroline's ears and Caroline couldn't help but laugh at her friend.

"Control yourself, woman. You're going to break your phone."

Elena laughed with equal verve at Caroline's words. "Right, well then come over so I can bombard you with all the questions I have and you can help me cook for tonight. I'm having a little get-together at my house for everyone. You know, kind of an attempt to be normal high school Elena who has dinner parties for her friends on Sunday nights, because she can. I'm trying to make it a traditional thing so I can keep to a routine."

"I am not cooking." Caroline scoffed as she made up the decision in her mind to go over to Elena's. "But I will come and watch you cook. I just need a shower first and then I'll be over."

Caroline quickly showered, changed, and headed over to Elena's house. She was happy that this time she could just walk in and not have to be invited by Jeremy, who wasn't even there.

"So spill, what happened?" Elena asked Caroline as she strained the water from a bowl of bowtie pasta. Caroline had just found a seat at the counter top and was eyeing the giant meatloaf that was sitting on top of the stove, waiting to be put in the oven to cook.

"It was pretty much nothing."Caroline lied, playing with hem of her skirt under the counter so Elena couldn't see her fidget.

"You are a terrible liar, Caroline." Elena saw right through her friend.

"Only around people who've known me my whole life," Caroline countered.

"You're avoiding my question now." Elena said and pulled another bowl out of a cabinet and started to mix a few dry things together.

"You know it's been a week." Caroline deflected again. "Only a week since I've lost Tyler and from the first moment that he was gone Klaus has been a menace to my brain. I can't even think about Tyler without Klaus coming to mind and this is all because he is in Tyler's body. Yet, for some reason this doesn't bother me as much as it should. I can't even seem to find myself being angry at him and I have every right to be."

Elena stopped mixing and looked up at Caroline. Caroline noticed her sudden stillness and gave Elena a weird look.

"What?" Caroline asked confused.

"You love him."

"I do not!" Caroline exclaimed and shook her head. "That is the last possible thing I could be. I don't even know him and what I do know about him is nothing to love."

"Well, then what do you think is the reason why you can't stay mad at him? If I'm being completely honest with you, I know that is a sign, because it's how I knew that I was in love with Damon. No matter what he did, I couldn't seem to keep myself angry enough at him to push him away." Elena added milk to her mixture and started stirring again. "It sounds messed up and you may not realize it, but it is a possibility that is what it means."

"Well, that makes both of us sound crazy, especially you since you are defending the guy who was literally out for your blood not too long ago. That right there doesn't make me very fond of Klaus." Caroline frowned and crossed her arms. "I need a lot more from him then not being able to hate him to make me love him."

"Well, I don't know how I feel about him. I don't think the two of us will ever be good friends." Elena winced when she said friends. "And since he can't use me anymore it makes me safe, but he is trying with you, so maybe if you let him you can get more from him." Elena explained and wiggled her eye brows.

"So your advice is to try getting to know Klaus." Caroline nearly laughed at this, hadn't this been her own advice to Klaus not too long ago. She had told him to try to actually get to know people. Of course, she had said that to distract him from the fact that his brother was about to get cornered and stabbed, but that was beside the point.

"Yes," said Elena, who nodded. "And also to tell me what happened in New York that has lead to all of this."

"Before I get to that. Have you noticed anything weird with the police around here lately?" Caroline asked suspiciously.

"Not really," Elena shrugged. "Stefan and Damon haven't really been out since Alaric dropped the bomb about them, but everyone still seems to think I'm human. The brother's are trying to restore their place in the town. Damon's even been in to see your mom to help replenish the towns vervain stash, so I think they don't trust Alaric's word anymore. Damon drank a vial of vervain in front of them to prove he wasn't a vampire. If only they knew he had been building an immunity to it." Elena paused her story. "Why?"

"No reason. Just saw the Sheriff today is all, so New York stuff..." Caroline tried to redirect the conversation again by bringing up a different topic. She was getting good a redirecting, possibly because it wasn't lying. Not fully.

Caroline tried to explain everything that happened in New York and made a point to emphasize the fact that Klaus had been trying to buy her love with a shopping spree. But Elena fixated on another aspect of her story.

"So, Rebekah is coming back here with Elijah?" Elena seemed to grip the wooden spoon in her hand rather tightly and Caroline remembered why it was so important that she left to stop Rebekah in the first place.

"Oh, well yeah, she is being held captive here by Klaus. I guess that is kind of in your favor." Caroline had realized her slip-up too late and was now trying to figure out how this could be a good thing for Elena.

"In my favor?" Elena shot at Caroline. "She is the reason I'm a vampire Caroline, she nearly killed Matt and I. The only way it would be in my favor is if she was sent here to die."

"Whoa." Caroline raised her eyebrows at Elena's words. "Since when are you so quick to end someone's life?"

"She made it personal. I thought you were going to New York to dagger her forever so that I wouldn't have to look at her ever again?" Elena was getting a little vein-y around the eyes and Caroline was starting to worry for her friend.

"Well, you're going to have to talk to Elijah about it, because he was the one who made the deal with Klaus to keep her mobile in exchange for my life." Caroline tried to explain and calm down her friend.

"Fine. I will." Caroline was surprised when Elena said this, but then remembered the way Elena and Elijah had always seemed to have a good rapport with one another, even after he had left Elena at the mercy of his sister on not one, but two occasions now.

Elena disappeared for a few minutes, her phone in hand and Caroline could just faintly hear Elena having a conversation over the phone with Elijah. Then she hung up and dialed again for Stefan. When she came back she was looking smug and much calmer then when she had walked out.

"The location of tonight's party has moved to Stefan and Damon's house and there has been an extra guest invited who just happens to be in town." Elena said knowingly as she finished up the cake she had been making to put in the oven before the meatloaf.

"Great." Caroline said unenthusiastically. She was not looking forward to tonight.

-x-

When Caroline walked into the Salvatore's home with two dishes in her hand, she was not any happier than she had been earlier, in fact, she was worse. She could see Elena and Jeremy heading toward the kitchen and mindlessly followed them as she didn't want to think about who was missing from this shindig and how she actually wished he would show for some unknown reason.

To her surprise, Bonnie was in the kitchen already with a bowl of mashed potatoes that Elena must have asked her to make.

"Oh, hey. I was just going to make the salad. I didn't have time." Elena said spotting Bonnie and placing the food alongside her dish. "These two have been no help." Elena said referring to Caroline and Jeremy.

"Hey." Caroline gawped. Jeremy only rolled his eyes.

"I'll help." Bonnie agreed easily and the two set to work. Caroline was avoiding eye contact with Bonnie as she watched her chop the tomatoes for the salad. She knew that she was being judge by every person in the house right now since Elena had to go blabbing about her trip to New York with Klaus. She was hoping that not meeting anyone's eye would keep them from saying something about it to her. She feared Damon and his mouth more than anyone else.

Bonnie was just chucking some tomatoes into a bowl when she nicked her thumb on the blade she was using.

"You okay?" Jeremy asked and Elena made a sudden escape from the room.

The smell put Caroline on edge, but she was able to handle the reaction her body was having to it much better than she had thought she would. She moved over to the sink to get out of the way and keep a distance from Bonnie.

"Yeah, just a small cut. I can heal it." Bonnie said.

Her cut was much deeper than she was letting on by what Caroline could smell, but maybe Bonnie really could heal it so it wasn't so bad. Bonnie reached over Caroline to grab at the paper towels on the counter. A splotch of blood landed on Caroline's wrist and Caroline eyed the red substance awkwardly.

"Oh, Caroline, I'm sorry. I was trying to staunch it with a towel." Bonnie said as she saw how her wound was leaving a trail to the paper towels.

"It's okay." Caroline breathed. She quickly sent her hand under the water faucet to clean it from her skin and keep her hunger at bay. The warmth had seeped into her skin when the blood had landed on her and she was afraid that the mere heat of it had made her hunger for it. Staying was no longer a good idea. She decided to leave the room as well and go looking for Elena while Bonnie healed herself and cleaned up.

She got out into the hallway when something happened that stopped her dead. Her mind seemed to open up to something and give her a memory she didn't know she had. She was in the girl's bathroom of the Mystic Grill and she was with Bonnie. Bonnie was taking some of her blood with a knife and put a few drops of it into a vial. Then it hit her harder, the memory of being in the bathroom with Bonnie after she had agreed to go with Klaus to New York came back to her. The blood must have broken the spell when it came into contact with her skin, because Caroline was getting the memory back like she had when she first became a vampire and remembered all the times she had been compelled.

Bonnie had erased Matt's memory, because he witnessed her doing a spell on Damon. Then she had erased ever telling Caroline about it from Caroline's mind and had set her at ease about Bonnie helping Klaus.

Caroline realized that if Bonnie knew she had remembered this that she would surely try to erase it again, so she needed to keep these things to herself this time and not go confronting Bonnie like a crazy person. She would figure out why Bonnie was doing it first and then come up with a plan from there. She wasn't great with plans though and knew she would need someone's help outside the group that she could tell this to without worrying that it would get back to Bonnie.

For the second time since she had arrived at the house Caroline became conscious of the fact that she wanted Klaus. She wanted help from Klaus, she corrected her mind. It sent chills down her spine. How had he become someone she went to for aid?

Caroline spotted Elena on the front door steps with Stefan and decided not to interrupt them; instead she headed for the family room where she could hear voices talking.

"Blondie." Damon's nickname for Caroline greeted her as she entered the room and Caroline saw that Elijah was with him and Matt. "Exactly who we were discussing."

"Hello again, Caroline." Elijah addressed her as she went to sit down next to Matt on the couch. Elena and Stefan entered the room as well and stood by Damon.

"Why am I being discussed?" Caroline asked, puzzled by the notion.

"Since you were unconscious I will explain what you missed and what I am here to put forth." Elijah started, seeming to be directing this whole conversation at Caroline and Elena. "Niklaus wanted Rebekah's head, so to speak, and I was able to use Caroline to wager for my sister. I refused to let him take her as she had been struggling with the fact that she had lost another brother, one that she had always been close with. Since Niklaus is clearly not dead, she has been better, but is now fraught with guilt over her actions, though she doesn't outwardly show it. She wants to make a formal apology to both Matt and Elena, but fears that it won't be accepted since her actions have resulted in Elena's loss of mortal life."

"Oh yes, an apology will make it all better." Damon declared sarcastically at Elijah. "What are you, five? She killed Elena."

"If I recall, Damon, Elena has forgiven you for worse." Elijah interjected and met Elena's eye.

"It's not really up to me." Elena said then looking past Elijah. "Matt is the one who should make the decision whether Rebekah deserves our acceptance or not. He was the one who was in the worst spot because of her."

Matt looked burdened by the sudden looks he was getting from everyone in the room. Caroline knew the weight that was on his shoulders now and hoped he didn't break under the pressure of the decision.

"I can't really blame her." Matt said after a few minutes to the surprise of many in the room. "With all that I've seen in the last couple of months of my friends all slowly becoming vampires or discovering other abilities they have and with losing my sister, I know what it's like to lose that person in your life that you are close to. I even attempted to drown myself just to see her again."

Matt stopped for a second and looked over to Elijah, even standing to meet his gaze.

"If your sister wants to apologize, let her. I can forgive her, but let her know she hasn't made any friends from this either." Matt stuck out his hand and waited for Elijah to take it.

"Does everyone else agree with this, that no harm will come to my sister for this act?" Elijah asked the room. Everyone seemed to go along with Matt, everyone apart from Damon as usual. Elijah took Matt's hand and shook it.

"Has everyone in this room except me lost their sanity? We're just going to let Rebekah be, because the jock says so?" Damon looked like he was going to throw a hissy fit or possibly just throw a large object.

"The choice has already been made Damon, sorry." Elena said evenly and joined Caroline on the couch where Matt got up. Bonnie and Jeremy came into the room then.

"What did we miss?" Jeremy asked looking around. Bonnie didn't seem to be as perplexed as Jeremy was.

"Just a mass attack of stupidity," Damon quipped and moved to go get a drink from his supply.

"Matt decided that we are going to forgive Rebekah once she apologizes." Caroline said to Bonnie and made room so that Matt could join her and Elena on the couch once more.

"Oh good, my calming herbs burning in the fire place must have worked then, since everyone seems to still be intact." Bonnie went over to the fire and took a poker to it. "It's still going."

"That explains a lot." Elena commented. Caroline nodded in agreement. Hadn't Elena been the one earlier to jump down Caroline's throat when she heard Rebekah was coming back to town and now she was her more levelheaded self again?

"Not to be rude," Elijah cut into the chatter. "But I should be heading out now. I won't be able to stay for dinner, though I'm sure I am missing out on a grandeur feast. I should let Rebekah know of the results of this evening." Elijah made his way out and Caroline took this moment to comment.

"Speaking of feast, the food is ready, right? Let's get chow-ing down."

When the meal was over, Caroline made a point to leave first and head out toward Klaus' house. She hadn't forgotten how badly she had wanted to tell him about Bonnie and was now starting to crave his opinion on what was going on. She had felt awkward all evening sitting across from Bonnie and trying to act like nothing was wrong with her friend. The need to say it out loud only grew stronger as the time passed.

She went right up to Klaus' door and rang the door bell. She didn't wait very long when Rebekah was at the door.

"What do you want?" Rebekah asked, clearly not amused.

Caroline was caught by surprise at seeing Rebekah already moved back into Klaus' place. She had figured she would have found some place else to stay.

"I was here for… I mean… I was looking for Klaus." Caroline stammered out her words and found herself wondering what she was really doing there. This could have waited until the morning; she didn't need to see him right now.

"Well, he's out." Rebekah said sounding bored.

"Oh, right. I'll just go then." Caroline said and turned on her heal.

"Here," Rebekah began and moved so quickly that Caroline was surprised when she saw her own phone in Rebekah's hand and no longer in her back pocket. Rebekah was entering something into it and then handed it back to Caroline. "Consider it my apology, or whatever since Elijah has told me you all are waiting for one now."

With that Rebekah headed back inside the house and slammed the door loudly. Caroline looked down at her phone to see what Rebekah had done. She was surprised to see her phone calling someone and a voice came over the line.

"Hello," the angered voice rang out and Caroline put it to her ear.

"Klaus?" Caroline asked, noting Tyler's voice.

"Caroline, what an interesting surprise, how did you get my number?" Klaus asked, clearly no longer upset about the phone call.

"Your sister gave it to me." This sounded weird even to Caroline.

"Full of surprises, that sister of mine." Klaus answered her. "What were you doing with Rebekah?"

Was that worry in his tone?

"I was looking for you actually and she appeared at your door." Caroline explained with only half of her attention. She was still trying to figure out what she had called him for with the other half.

"Are you still at my house?" Klaus asked sounding intrigued.

"Yes."

"Stay there." Klaus insisted.

Caroline stopped moving and looked around the large driveway. It only took a minute for Klaus to appear from the side yard and head toward her. She hung up her phone and waved a greeting, feeling foolish.

"Should I even ask where you've been or are you going to purposefully ignore answering that question?" Caroline wondered out loud.

"I would advise against it." Klaus warned and it was enough for Caroline to drop the subject.

"I have something to tell you anyway." Caroline began and started to tell Klaus about Bonnie and her worry that her friend was planning something. She could tell just from his reactions that he was fighting between not caring and trying to help which only made Caroline feel more ridiculous that she had come to him. Why did she think he would care again?

"Well, until you know what she is really doing we won't have any way to counter her." Klaus said trying to sound helpful. "I suggest keeping an eye on your witch friend."

"Speaking of that," Caroline said and took a long look at Klaus. "Shouldn't you have visited her today?"

Caroline was trying to make a point of the fact that Klaus was still in Tyler's body even though he had agreed that if she went to New York with him that he would remove himself from Tyler's body and go back to his own.

"Minor problem." Klaus said and didn't explain further. This set Caroline off.

"Minor problem? So you are just going to ignore the fact that we had an agreement?" Caroline screeched. "You were supposed to be out of him the second we were back and don't tell me it's Bonnie. I saw her today. Other than cooking mashed potatoes and cutting her thumb she seemed to have a pretty boring day."

"Bonnie's not the problem." Klaus remained calm.

"Well than what could possibly be keeping you in Tyler?" Caroline crossed her foot and shifted her weight to one side.

"My body is missing." Klaus ground out, looking like he was trying not to yell at Caroline. "I was just out double checking that fact."

"How convenient." Caroline bristled.

"As if I would pointedly lose my own body," Klaus argued.

"Wouldn't you? To keep up this crazy masquerade you have going on? Don't you know what it does to me to see you in Tyler's body? Do you know how confusing it is to think that Tyler is gone, and yet have him right here in front of me? It's driving me insane." Caroline raged at Klaus letting out what she had been avoiding even thinking, let alone saying out loud. "I can't even decipher if I want to have you here, because I have feelings for you or if I just miss Tyler so much that I delude myself just to have some semblance of him near."

"I'm the one that is supposed to find it convenient my body has disappeared, when you have so much to gain from my being in here?" Klaus questioned. "For as much as it's worth I don't want to be in this body. This wasn't my idea, Caroline. I would have been just as happy to die as be in this body. You think I can't see the difference in the way you look at me now than how you did when I was in my own body? Do you know how that eats at me to see you happy for all the wrong reasons, not because of me, but because you see him? I would love to prove you wrong by being back in my own body and for all I can figure it may have been you that disposed of it just to keep me this way."

"Oh yes, It was me. I confess. I have been hiding it in my trunk this whole time, because I'm _so _desperate." Caroline practically cried, her eyes were burning and tears were threatening to fall at any minute. "You have some nerve."

"Don't mock me. Even the locator spell seemed to not work on my body. If it had been you I would have known." Klaus rolled his eyes. "You aren't clever enough on your own to plan something like that, you proved that just by being here tonight."

"Yet, you still felt a need to blame me. You see a threat and you attack. So quick to throw something in someone's face without any second thought on how it may affect them as long as it defends your point. God forbid your pride or honor get's bruised." Caroline seethed.

"You silly little girl, with your hypocritical words, I'm surprised you've ever managed to find someone who would stay with you when you push any sign of affection away so easily and then sit there and claim to love Tyler when you'll settle for anyone in his body." Klaus paused at Caroline's stunned face. "As if you didn't just admit that yourself."

"Do us all a favor and find your body so you can get the hell out of town, Klaus. No one wants you here." She had her keys out in her hand, not wanting to cry in front of Klaus or even look at him anymore. He had crossed a line with his last comment.

Caroline got in her car and pulled out of the drive without looking back, making it to her house before she felt the tears that washed down her cheeks. She wiped at them and hardened her thoughts. This was not worth it this was not in any way a reason for her to cry. This was inevitable. The fact that she had gotten out before she had really felt anything for Klaus was her only safe thought she would allow herself before flopping down on the couch in her living room. She didn't want to go to her room, she didn't want to sleep. She was too wound up.

After about four hours of just sitting on the couch glaring at the window frame, she decided to get up. She paced the house for another hour and then decided to try to eat something. Her fridge was full of nothing edible and she knew for a fact that she was out of blood. Her only hope was to go out and feed on whatever was running around the forest right now. After debating going out, she texted a quick message to Elena asking her if she wanted to join for some free training. Elena texted back that she was a sleep, which Caroline giggled at and then made up her mind to just go alone.

The sun was just making its way over the edge of sky as Caroline walked through the woods. She hadn't found anything scampering about yet that she could stomach so she just kept striding along. Her phone rang in her pocket and she pulled it out in hopes that Elena had changed her mind, but was only more incensed when she saw it was a number she wished she didn't recognize. It was Klaus and she felt a great joy from hitting the 'ignore' button and getting back to her hunt.

A few minutes later the phone rang again, and again it was Klaus. She repeated the same routine for the next hour as he called and she ignored him.

All this phone ringing had distracted her from the shadow that had found its way onto her path. If she hadn't smelled the air as she hunted she would never have picked up on the scent and started hearing the heart beat of the thing following her. She moved swiftly around a tree to her left and came up behind the figure and shoved it into the same tree.

"Why are you following me?" She was hissing around the teeth that were extended from her jaw at the person. She nearly let the guy go when she identified the person as someone she knew, but kept her hold when she remembered she had met the wolf in New York hundreds of miles from where she was now. It was her waiter from the little French café that she and Klaus had stopped at. She hissed then just at the memory that she had spent time with Klaus around this guy. It jolted the bearded guy to answer her.

"You were with Tyler." The waiter answered sternly, not seeming phased by her look of horror.

"So you do know him." Caroline spoke lightly so she could get the guy to trust her enough to answer her questions.

"He used my parents place out in West Virginia for a few months and then I never heard from him again. He said he had a blonde girlfriend he was trying to win back, but he never mentioned she was a vampire. Then he didn't recognize me in New York. I came to see what the hell happened. Now I know." The bearded waiter glared down at Caroline and she just smiled at him. He was no match for her strength without a full moon and she knew it.

"Know what?" She asked innocently.

"You killed him." The guy accused with a shout, trying to push against Caroline's hands. Caroline's eyes tightened at the remembrance of Tyler being gone and at the idea that it was her fault.

"It wasn't me." She growled at him.

"Like I would believe you," the guy said and tried to make a break for it. He shifted his weight to one side and slackened his other shoulder, making it harder for Caroline to hold him up. When she went to readjust her hold, he slipped his shoulder out of her grip and fell to the ground with a thud. Caroline followed his movements to the ground and had him pinned up against the tree with her whole arm this time before he could escape. She slammed his head into the tree trunk to disorient him and he shouted out his pain before retaliating by bringing his teeth down on Caroline's left hand and biting hard enough to break skin.

Caroline froze. Her brain screamed at the action, knowing immediately what it meant when it happened. She was bitten. A werewolf bit her. A. Werewolf. Bit. Her. Again. Her eyes went wide and she felt the rush of pain and anger that fueled her movements to protect herself. Her right hand sunk into the guy's chest like it was pudding instead of someone's rib cage and felt the final beat of the heart before clutching it and pulling it out of his chest cavity.

The body slumped to the ground and Caroline tossed away the heart before freaking out. She was bitten again. Her brain kept rehashing out that thought over and over trying to make sense of it. It wasn't an innocent bite either. Her whole pointer finger had skin ripped from the side, something that would have easily healed had it not been ripped by the teeth of a werewolf.

For a second she just stared at her hand. Then her mind started to remind her that she had survived last time, she had a way out. If only her way out hadn't been the Original hybrid she'd yelled at less than ten hours ago. Not that he could help right now without his body. Tyler's blood wouldn't heal her, even if it was Klaus in there. She needed Klaus' blood.

Somehow her bloody hand found her phone though and seemed to be making the decision for her to call him. It was better than sitting there alone and wasting away into hallucinations that she was not looking forward to again.

The phone rang, once, twice, and finally Tyler's voice answered with a tone of surprise.

"Caroline, deciding to speak to me now instead of blocking my call? How very kind that you have decided to speak to me on your terms. And here, I had such good news to give-"

"Klaus." Caroline tried to break through his long speech that she was barely focusing on. She needed to explain what was going on, why she called him, but he wasn't giving her the chance.

"There is the matter of how I will be able to keep Rebekah on her word when I have to leave town and she seems so intent on finishing high school with you lot." He continued.

"Klaus."

"Which I might add, she has never wanted to do before. She always felt herself above that. Until now."Klaus was never ending and Caroline was starting to lose patience and hold over her thoughts. She could feel the heat of illusions trying to fill her mind.

"Klaus."

"I suppose that would have been my fault as well, seeing as my pride is so important to you. I can only imagine that my apology wouldn't matter in the least to you." Klaus rambled still.

"Klaus."

"It would seem more of abhorrence, I'm sure."

"Nik." Caroline breathed lightly. She knew somewhere in her mind that would work and that it was something she had only ever heard his sister call him, but when he came to a dead stop she wanted to kiss the girl for making the name mean something, although now she couldn't remember why his name mattered. She was losing connection to her thoughts.

"Caroline?"

"I was bit again. The wolf waiter is here or was here, he is gone now and my hands are bleeding. One of them isn't my blood, but it smells awful and I can see the lake from here." Caroline was starting to see a memory of the time at the lake when she was eight and she had snuck out with the others to get to the rope swing that Tyler's dad had just installed there. They weren't supposed to go out without an adult, but they had spent all day there and played until she felt hungry and bit Vicki Donovan hard on the arm snapping it off in one crunch. No, that wasn't right, she couldn't be biting Vicki. The girl hadn't even been there and she wasn't a vampire when she was eight. She pulled herself out of the illusion and heard the panicked heavy breathed voice of Tyler, no Klaus on the phone calling her name.

"I'm here. I'm in the woods near the north side of the lake." Caroline said as she remembered her location. Her eyes opened to the sunlight and she felt the prickles of pain on her irises. She looked at her bloodied right hand and saw her ring was still on her finger, keeping her safe.

"Hurry." She said to Klaus and hung up the phone. Her mind fell into another delusion.

* * *

Pleas review! 'Til next time.


	9. Delirium

Phew, I love my reviewers. You all are such cool people.

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 9: Delirium

Caroline was in the Lockwood cellar and she could feel something breathing heavily on her neck. It reminded her of Tyler, the way that he had panted as he kissed her along her collar bone, leaving sloppy kisses everywhere before turning her around. She decided to face him. Only it wasn't Tyler. Not technically. It was his wolf up on his hind legs breathing on her neck and she panicked and backed up into the far wall. Tyler changed back into his human self and then fell to the floor until he was changing into his wolf form again. Caroline didn't want to watch, she didn't want to see the pain that was in Tyler's eyes as he changed over and over. He looked like a toy, folding in and out of shape. He went back and forth between growling and speaking, but none of it was making any sense to her. He was talking like he was worried for her, but he was the one in pain. She couldn't figure out why he was worried about her. She was fine. She didn't have to change in and out of wolf form. She wasn't a werewolf or a hybrid.

"Caroline," she heard her name come from Tyler's mouth, but it was someone else saying it. She knew the difference. Every time she knew the difference. "Caroline come back to me. Wake up. It's just a dream."

Caroline shook her head. She knew the difference, she thought again. She knew it wasn't a dream. She was wide awake and could see the pain in Tyler's eyes as he said her name. Then he changed into Klaus and she remembered about Tyler being trapped.

"Get out of him." She screamed, but he was already turning back into the wolf again and Caroline found herself falling to the floor and whimpering. "Please Tyler stop."

"No, keep going. You aren't allowed to be with my daughter unless you keep trying." Caroline recognized her father's voice, but couldn't find him.

"Dad?" Caroline asked looking around. She tried to leave the cellar, but couldn't get out because it was locked. "Daddy, I'm down here."

No one answered her this time and she turned back to the main part of the cellar. Tyler wasn't there anymore and Caroline was starting to become worried she was alone in this place now. She wasn't allowed out, because of what she was. Her father had trapped her there and she had to be good in order to get out.

Slowly she started to realize she was being carried and then she was recognizing Tyler's voice shouting to someone. He must have been on the phone, because she could only hear the answer faintly. It was Bonnie on the other line and she was saying she was with Klaus' body. That sounded weird to Caroline and she just wanted to keep her eyes shut and not hear anything anymore.

Her left hand was killing her and she wanted to sleep off the pain, but was afraid of the dreams. Her legs were bothering her too. They felt like they were in a vice grip. When she opened her eyes, she saw why. Tyler was holding up the phone in his right hand to his face as he yelled at Bonnie and carried her legs at the same time. She was uncomfortable, but didn't want to walk so she didn't say anything. She just looked up at Tyler and wondered where he had been all this time.

"Klaus, I can't get this thing out of here on my own. I'm just going to have to do it here. Take Caroline to your house, its closer. Then when you wake up here you can get to her faster." Bonnie's voice rang louder than it had before and Caroline was disappointed that it wasn't Tyler who was carrying her. She closed her eyes again.

She was suddenly in direct sunlight again and she was in a bathing suit. It was her favorite one. It was pink and had sequins all along the edge of it. She had begged her mom forever to buy it for her, but her dad ended up getting it for her birthday and she was able to wear it now to Sarah Wright's party.

She dropped her towel and bag on a patio chair and strutted out to her friends who were all outside standing around the slip-n-slide Sarah had gotten for her birthday. Elena and Bonnie were talking to Sarah while a few other girls ran though the sprinklers before sliding down the plastic sheet, soaking themselves and giggling. Sarah's mom was taking pictures and Caroline jumped in front of the three girls and smiled, making sure her bathing suit could be clearly seen. Elena laid her head on Caroline's shoulder and Bonnie hugged Caroline's side just before the picture was taken. They all laughed and hugged. Caroline was happy to see her friends, but could feel the way her hair was frizzing in the wind and from the water spray around her and was starting to get upset by it. Bonnie's hair was braided so it was fine and Sarah had her hair in a bun. Caroline seemed to be the only one worried about pictures. Even Elena looked fine. Her hair was long and sleek, like always. Her hair blew in the wind like a model in a magazine and Caroline suddenly became angry at Elena. How did she get so lucky? Why didn't her hair frizz?

Elena was pointing at the slip-n-slide, and before Caroline knew it, had gone through to the other side. Caroline didn't like the idea of sliding on her stomach, but if Elena and these other girls could do it, then so could she. She followed suit and flew through to the other side, laughing at how great it was. Everyone had started to do tricks and Caroline wasn't backing down.

"Watch this," She called to her friends and backed up to get a longer running start. Just before Caroline dove, her foot caught on one of the slides pegs and Caroline tumbled onto the slide and then off the side, clutching her ankle in pain.

A car door slamming pulled her out of her dementia.

She opened her eyes and saw Klaus hovering above her, still in Tyler's body. She was back to remembering exactly what had happened and what was really going on. At least this time she had come out of the fog with more sense than last time. She was thankful for that, even if everything else was still bothering her.

"Ugh, my head," Caroline complained out loud and pulled Klaus' attention to her immediately. He had been running, but slowed down as he saw she was awake, or maybe it was because he was close to his house. She wasn't sure and really didn't care either way.

"Caroline," his voice was soft as he looked down at her and she smiled up at him.

"I'm sorry," she said and her face twisted in pain both for her hand and the strong emotion that was guiltily flowing through her. "I didn't mean it."

"Don't Caroline," Klaus started then looked like he was thinking better of having this conversation now. "You're just going to regret everything you've said now, because you are in pain. Don't worry."

"Why am I always dying?" Caroline asked Klaus after a few seconds.

"Shh, Sweetheart. You're sick. You don't know what you are saying." Klaus tried to quiet Caroline as he carried her into the house. In no time he had her on a bed and she could see both Rebekah and Elijah had popped their head into the room. She felt helpless and she didn't want to be in front of this family.

"Aww, the pretty one is dying." Another voice called.

"Shut up, Kol." Klaus grumbled.

"Don't tell me you had another werewolf bite her just so you could get your body back from the witch." Kol said rather chuffed.

"Kol," Klaus warned. "Out."

Elijah and Rebekah seemed to think this meant them as well as they took off after their brother, leaving the room to just Klaus and Caroline.

"What?" Caroline asked confused. She tried to sit up, coming back to her normal self for the time being. "You sent him after me, you had him bite me? This was your plan?"

"No, I had no idea of the werewolf even being in town." Klaus said trying to calm Caroline down again.

"Right," Caroline turned over in the bed and hugged herself into the comforter. She was particularly careful with her hand. She moaned as she noticed the blotchy red patch that was now covering most of her hand, looking infected.

"Any second now Bonnie will have me back in my body and I will be here to give you my blood. We just need to wait." Klaus murmured to her. "But you must believe me when I say this wasn't my plan. If you hadn't killed that wolf before I got there…"

Klaus didn't finish his sentence and Caroline didn't turn around to face him. She didn't care what he would have done to the wolf. She already got that revenge.

"Now you've found your body." Caroline mumbled and kept her face scrunched into the pillow. Beads of sweat were starting to pour off her and she was just about to say something about needing blood, when a bag appeared over her shoulder. She wordlessly took it, making a point to not look back over her shoulder to thank him before sucking down the bag faster than she'd ever had before.

Her head started to swim again and she turned back toward Klaus.

"No, don't let it. I don't want to see anymore." She said to him, but was confused by her own words. She couldn't seem to remember what she didn't want to see or what she was referring to.

"It'll be over soon, stay with me." Klaus said and was starting to lean toward the bed again to hold her, but he fell backwards to the floor and Caroline wasn't sure if she was dreaming it or if he was really collapsing.

The body stood then and looked around the room like it was confused at where it was. It looked out the door to the room and then looked back to Caroline and saw that she was hurt as she lay on the bed.

"Caroline? What happened? Why are we in Klaus' room?" Tyler seemed to ask Caroline and she brightened, a full smile coming to her lips. It was the real Tyler, there was no hint of Klaus in that body and she was sure he was alive. Putting Klaus in Tyler hadn't killed Tyler after all.

"You were dead." Caroline said and then giggled. "I thought you were and now you are alive. I have you back."

Caroline moved to sit up and Tyler immediately went to her side and picked her up to take her out of the house. He made his way slowly down the stairs of Klaus' house as he requested for her forgiveness. She was so happy she didn't know how to control herself. She was just kissing him over and over again as he carried her down the stairs, taking each remarkably careful measured step on at a time. She then cut off his words of apology.

"I need Klaus though." She said as she showed Tyler her hand. "I got bit."

Tyler stopped at the bottom of the stairs and seemed to try and reason whether he should keep going or not.

"Right." He said looking at her hand.

"I want to leave with you, but I need to live first, because you're alive. " Caroline smiled again. "I felt so terrible that I couldn't tell you all these things. I never really got my good-bye you know. You were just gone, or it was Klaus. I don't really know."

Caroline seemed to pause as he set her down on the couch in the living room, the one she had the conversation with Klaus on not too long ago, and it felt weird this time, like she wasn't really sitting on a couch, but sitting on a bed instead.

"I really loved you, you know." Caroline decided to get out. She didn't trust her mind anymore. She was getting a bad feeling that she was not really with Tyler and she didn't like that feeling. This had to be real. Tyler had to be alive. "I'm going to miss you too."

"You don't have to. I'll always be around when you need me." Tyler said and Caroline was confused again.

"How?" She really didn't trust this world now.

"In your heart, if you really love me, I'll always be there." Tyler said with a smile that had a hint of a smirk to it, like he used to always have.

"You sound like a movie." Caroline said and leaned her head on the couch feeling tired.

"It probably is from a movie," Tyler shrugged. "But it's true and it's what you needed."

"Why would I need to hear-"

Caroline was pulled right out of the vision. She was still in Klaus' room, she was still sick and sweating and warm from the werewolf bite. Tyler hadn't really come back. In fact, his body wasn't even on the floor next to the bed where the dream had made Klaus collapse. And when she looked up, Klaus was in the doorway.

He was in his real body and he was looking extremely self-satisfied.

Caroline had to hold in the earth shattering sob that she felt in her and put on a smile that barely moved her mouth.

"So, it takes a girl dying to get you to do something for her?" She tried to make a joke out of it, as if she hadn't been wrecked by the delirium that she had just awoken from.

"I'm not going to let you die, Caroline." Klaus said with accent that she vividly remembered. Her name just smoothly danced across his tongue.

"Did you already give me your blood?" Caroline asked confused as she saw he wasn't coming any closer to her, but staying in the doorway.

"Not yet." He answered simply.

"You're not going to give me a long speech about seeing the world's beauty again, are you? Because I think that kind of thing has a one time limit for working on girls." Caroline smiled a little more at her joke. It was the only thing distracting her.

Klaus just nodded his head in the negative.

"What is it then? I'm dying here." Caroline said, starting to really worry that maybe he had just used her to get his body back by pretending to like her. "Am I dreaming again?"

Klaus took a step into the room, his eyes never moving from hers. He sat down on the corner of the bed and put his fingers under Caroline's chin. She felt like she was having Déjà-Vu, something that the delusional side couldn't seem to make sense of, so it allowed it.

"Tell me, Caroline." He said, not giving her a chance to speak. "Tell me why I should save you."

"Because you fancy me," Caroline answered tentatively, as if it were obvious. "You just said you weren't going to let me die."

He just stared back at her.

"You mean _my_ feelings."

He nodded.

"Klaus," She said softly. "I can't."

"Can't what, Caroline?" He asked.

"I'm not a good liar." Caroline said and looked down, away from his eyes, even though his hand made it difficult to. She moved to sit up instead and was able to get her head away then. "Forcing it out isn't going to make it any more real either."

"I'm not asking you to be in love with me. I just want to know that this isn't for naught." Klaus said looking off out his window.

"Don't you already know that?" Caroline asked, cringing at what she was implying. "I can't stop and only worry about you. I have friends, my mother, and this town to worry about. It's my home, Klaus."

He held his gaze on her long enough that she saw his eyes change color slightly, showing the hybrid blood coursing through his veins and giving her a hint at how his emotions showed there. If only she could read them.

"You need time," he said, looking away then to the wound on her hand. "You need to heal."

His words seemed to be deciding something for him and Caroline was starting to become a bit frustrated with him. She was still not entirely sure she wasn't dreaming this all up. Hadn't he said he couldn't find his body and here it was like he had it all along? She couldn't afford to start mixing her thoughts up now, not with the Wolf bite playing with it already.

"Just, don't give up on me." Caroline said. "And certainly don't kill me."

As if no longer able to hold himself back, he unraveled his arms and gave his wrist to her, placing it across her lap. She took it cautiously and drank deeply from his veins. When she knew it was enough she placed his wrist in his lap and laid herself down again. She could feel him get up as she did so and she stuck her good hand out to grab his other wrist.

"Don't go." She said and closed her eyes to sleep. She brought her hand back to her and tucked it under her head before feeling the emotion from the last dream bubbling up to meet her thoughts. She couldn't seem to hold it off this time and she hid her face deep within the pillows around her to hide her tears. Her last thought was of how she never heard him answer whether he would stay or not, but she was too devastated by her own thoughts to check.

A deep sigh was heard then and she knew her answer.

He stayed.

-x-

Caroline could feel the crusty dried sleep around her eyes that told her she had not only cried before falling asleep, but while she had slept also. Tears for Tyler and how she knew now that he was gone, that she had dreamed up her final moment with him and how she was wishing it had somehow been real.

She pulled her hand out from under the covers and inspected it. It was as if the day had never happened.

She looked around the room and was shocked that she was back in her own bed. No signs that anyone had been there other than her could be seen. Her clothes were the only sign of the day before even happening. Her left and right sleeves were covered in blood even though her hands were clean and she seemed to have a streak of blood running up the side of her jacket and skirt. Not to mention her tights were ripped in several different places and clotted with dirt. She got up to strip the old clothes off and decided that burning them was a much better idea than just cleaning them.

She had just wrapped a towel around herself when she heard footsteps coming up to her bedroom door.

"Oh, you're awake," was the greeting Bonnie gave her as she came into Caroline's room. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd be trying to shower yet, um. Klaus wanted me to make sure you were okay when you woke up and give you this. He seemed pretty intent on leaving town now and I wanted to make sure his blood worked and he entrusted me with this since I was going to keep watch."

Bonnie handed Caroline a rolled up parchment with a blue bow that was Klaus' signature note style. Caroline was a little hesitant at first, but when Bonnie gave her space to get in the shower, Caroline took the moment to open up the letter.

"Caroline,

I will be back.

Yours,

Klaus"

Caroline scoffed at the "yours" part, but it made her curious as to why he would leave a letter claiming he'd be back. Of course he would. He seemed bent on spending all eternity chasing her and she was betting that even if she shunned his every advance that he would still keep an eye out on her for all time.

She hopped in the shower and scrubbed some shampoo into her hair. With every stroke she wondered at how long he would be gone and where he was going and what the note could possibly mean. She also wondered about Bonnie. She seemed to be very willing to help out Klaus.

She made a point to not waste any time asking Bonnie about it when she was finally out of the shower and changed into fresh clean clothes that didn't reek of wolf blood.

"Bonnie," Caroline called, walking into her living room.

"Still here," Bonnie smiled, dropping the television remote on the couch next to her.

"Oh good, I wanted to know if Klaus said anything about why he left or where he went?" Caroline knew she was pushing some limit asking her friend this, but she was genuinely curious about his destination and plan.

"Something about his brother, I didn't really pay attention. Why? Are you going to miss him?" Bonnie joked and cocked her head to the side.

"As if, I just want to know how long I have until he is bothering me again." Caroline blew off Bonnie's jibe and sat next to her friend on the couch. She was not admitting to Bonnie how she really felt.

"How did he get you to help him anyway? It can just be because he charmed you." Caroline threw in her own quip and Bonnie was the one to look annoyed now.

"I have some of his blood now." Bonnie said with a joyful smile. "This means I can make him pay if he steps out of line again."

"So, you're not going to just do it now?" Caroline questioned.

Bonnie shrugged it off.

"I'm testing a theory. Plus, that would just send his siblings after me and Kol really creeps me out." Bonnie said with a shiver. "Back at their house, he just kept giving me this look. I was not flattered either." Bonnie said sounding similarly to how Caroline sounded when she blew off Bonnie's remark about Klaus.

"Speaking of, how did I get home?" Caroline questioned, just realizing now how that bothered her.

"Klaus drove you. You were all blotchy faced and knocked out from sleep, but he insisted you'd be more comfortable and I was glad to get out of his place since you were alive and all."

"And because of the creepy brother," Caroline added.

"That too," Bonnie agreed and got up to leave. Caroline let her friend out and went back to her room with thoughts of what it meant that Klaus was gone.

-x-

A week went by and nothing seemed to hint to Caroline the fact that Klaus was back in town, leaving behind Elijah and Rebekah as per his agreement. Caroline made a point to return to school and catch up on all the things she had missed while being a pariah to the town. Mostly it was little things, like school work and Sarah Wright's new nose-job, but that was no surprise to Caroline.

What was weird was the fact that Rebekah was back to school as well. She seemed hell-bent on making Caroline's cheerleading days a joke as Rebekah compelled the squad to do her routine instead. Caroline, still remaining as captain, let this go even though she was burning to get back at the Original blonde.

Caroline never got her chance, however, as time passed. She found herself liking the ideas the girl came up with. She was even starting to let the Original sister grow on her a bit as she got partnered with her on a chemistry assignment.

The project was like a catalyst to their friendship. One second Caroline hated Rebekah, the next they were working on the same committee for prom and bonding, actually bonding. Even Elena had seemed to forgive the girl with time and was inviting her out to the Grill with them.

After about four more months of no sign that Klaus was even still alive, Rebekah had somehow found a niche in the circle of friends like she had been a part of it all along.

What was the hardest thing for Caroline to believe was the fact that Matt had agreed to go with Rebekah to prom, leaving Caroline without a date. No reminders of her attempt to kill him seemed to make Matt uneasy enough to change his mind about going with her and Caroline stormed off claiming that Matt had been compelled, because it was the only logical reason why he would go to the dance with the Original after everything.

"You don't understand. I'm dateless now and Matt seems to think that he has in no way been compelled by you and claims to be drinking vervain like a daily tonic." Caroline ranted to Rebekah as she passed back and forth in the living room of Klaus' house. For a month now, Caroline had been coming here to work on the prom décor.

Prom was in the same spot it always was, the old Fell's church which had been renovated into a club at one point until seen as too trashy for the town and now served as a large party hall for weddings and their high school prom. Stellar, as in planetary, was the prom theme. At first it seemed an incredibly stupid idea, but as Caroline and Rebekah put their heads together, it became something much more phenomenal then just planets. It became stars and the dark beauty of space. Caroline alone would have made the prom astounding either way, but with Rebekah's help and her family's generous donation to the event, they found that turning the church into a place of frivolity was like creating art.

"I already told you I didn't compel him to like me. I simply asked and he said 'yes'." Rebekah's boredom with the subject was apparent in her tone and was written quite clearly on her face. "Now, are you going to ask me about the ceilings or not?"

"What am I suppose to do?" Caroline whined as she stopped her pacing and flopped down on the same couch she once conversed with Klaus on. "Without Matt my only options are the unlikely Damon, since Elena can't make up her mind on the brothers, or…"

Caroline trailed off and sighed as she met Rebekah's knowing eye.

"Or?" Rebekah asked with a lift of an eyebrow.

"Well, your brother isn't in town, is he?" Caroline chided and crossed her arms. "Not any hope there."

"Even I don't understand how you and Nik work, yet, you seem to consider him an option." Rebekah teased and cut Caroline off as she tried to interrupt. "I haven't heard from him either, but knowing Nik, he is well aware of what is going on in our lives and would probably not be astounded to find that we have become friends."

"Nosey prick," Caroline murmured.

"You talk about Nik like you hate him and yet, you bring him up all the time." Rebekah remarked and smiled. "I think you need to decide whether you like him or not. Give my brother a chance."

"You would say that." Caroline said quietly. "You can forgive him."

"And so can you."

Caroline didn't answer this. Could she? Rebekah wasn't even very easy to forgive and she only caused trouble. Klaus wrecked havoc and as far as she knew, still was, even if it was no longer directly aimed at her and her friends.

"It's not like he has proven himself to me." Caroline said flatly. "He just makes offers about the world's beauty and showing it to me."

"He saved your life several times now." Rebekah countered.

"And how many times was my life being in jeopardy his fault?" Caroline returned fire with her words, leaning forward as she said them to make her point. "I put my life on the line all the time for my friends and you don't see me asking them for a favor in return for it."

"It's not a favor he is asking for. That's-" Rebekah started, but the doorbell rang and cut off anymore of the conversation while Rebekah went to get the door.

A sharp buzz went off as Caroline waited for Rebekah to return and she recognized her friend's cell phone sitting on the coffee table in front of her, hidden partially under a dark blue swatch for drapes. She couldn't remember seeing it there before, but was stunned by the name that was displayed across the screen. It exclaimed that she had a text from Klaus. It took a millisecond for Caroline to decide she was going to read it and was only let down when it simply read: "Good".

Then Caroline had another idea. Since she had already gone so far as to open the phone and read the text, she figured reading the others wouldn't be any more conniving.

Caroline was gob smacked to see that ninety percent of the conversations were about her and it made her wonder if their friendship was more for his sake than for Rebekah's. It seemed that the Original sister had been lying about not hearing from her brother and was giving him all sorts of details about Caroline that even Caroline hadn't noticed about herself.

She really wondered if she sighed every time Klaus' name was mentioned and tried to recall why she had asked his sister about his previous relationships, although she remembered Tequila being involved that time.

Caroline heard Rebekah returning and put the cell phone back.

"So ceilings," Caroline started before they could return to the conversation about Klaus. If Caroline kept talking about him she was sure to let slip something she had read from the text messages and she didn't want that to become apparent. It was Rebekah's own fault for not deleting her phone history.

"Yes, I had the most outrageous idea for them." Rebekah began and set them down the road for prom plans and away from any other talk.

When Caroline left later that afternoon she was extremely confident that prom was going to be the best thing the town of Mystic Falls had ever seen. She wanted this and in an odd sort of way, wanted this for Rebekah as well. This was going to be the first time Rebekah would actually get to see a high school dance and enjoy it. Caroline was going to make a point to go to Rebekah's house to prepare for prom with her and have the limo pick them both up from there. Even if her friendship with Rebekah had been all for Klaus, she was still going to do this for the girl. Rebekah at least deserved some sort of happiness after all. She had to put up with her brother a lot longer than any one of them.

She let her thoughts drift off then and pulled into her driveway.

* * *

(Next chapter is prom, that's all I'm saying. Please Review! )


	10. Prom

I'm sorry, so sorry. This took me forever to get out and with the holiday I got distracted. Hopefully you all like the chapter enough to forgive me. I don't know how I feel about it. It was hard for me to write.

As always, thank you for the reviews! I'm glad you all liked the last chapter so much (and I really wish I had more time to talk about Rebekah's relationship with the girls too! It just seemed to be too long to add). Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 10: Prom

After the burning of the church took place in Mystic Falls, a new church was built closer to town and named after the founder who commissioned it, the Fell's. From the outside, the church was a simple white two-story house with a steeple. Having once been a night club called "Rad" a few years back, it was popular for the second floor indoor and outdoor balcony that looked down over the night club's dance floor and out over the town. It even had a big enough space on the stage to have dancers go up a side ramp and join the DJ for contests.

Caroline utilized this space to its fullest capabilities. She and Rebekah had set up everything over the last week, only allowing technicians to enter to help set-up the lights and the DJ's stand.

Caroline and Rebekah lifted a long midnight blue curtain to the top of a column. Rebekah was standing on her tiptoes in gold flats on the railing of the second floor to reach the top and Caroline was sitting on the rail helping her keep the curtain from creasing the wrong way. Had Rebekah been a regular girl Caroline would have never let her attempt this, but a thousand years of living had made Rebekah a lot more fearless about small heights and handy with decor. It also made her capable to wedge a nail in the carpeted ceiling without any difficulty.

"Careful, don't let the ceiling bubble up. It took forever to get it to lay flat yesterday." Caroline fretted.

"I know Caroline, I was there." Rebekah responded back and pulled herself down from the railing now that the curtain was in place. "I still say we should have paid someone to do this."

"It would have taken them all week to do just the ceiling and we only had a week. We're more than capable to set this thing up ourselves and we can do it a lot faster. We can't just throw money at the problem." Caroline chided her friend.

Elena was down on the main floor setting up the flowers on the tables. Most of the work had already been done by Rebekah and Caroline the previous day and now the whole space was covered in either dark blue, dark purple or black materials. The ceiling had to be the best feature. It was like something out of Harry Potter. It was a black carpeted material that had a thousand fiber-optic lights fixed into them to make the ceiling seem like you were really looking up at the stars. Even Rebekah had been impressed by it when she had finally gotten it in. She had been raving about finding it online for a week now and was convinced that it was the only thing tying it all together. All the side windows had been covered as well, but they were blank screens that would later be turned into orbiting planets. A giant sun sat behind two large chairs on the stage and was set to spin while its colors changed to the beat of the music playing. They'd done a test run on it earlier and the sun looked amazing, especially during slow songs.

Caroline took one glance back at the room. She was surprised that the place had gone from the boring all-white walls and wooden floors to the dark enclosure. Lights were going to make all the difference in this place.

Just as they had finally finished the place and were starting to head out, Caroline came to a dead stop and turned back.

"Oh, shoot, the fog machines," Caroline said suddenly, stopping Rebekah and Elena. The other two girls glanced at each other as if knowing what the other was thinking.

They went back to the dance floor and helped set up the machines so that they could leave quickly. In no time the three were all back out again and talking about who they were taking to the dance. Or more importantly and accurately, Rebekah and Caroline were grilling Elena on who she was taking.

"I really thought about this, because I always go to the dances with Stefan." Elena started. "I thought it would be more of a tradition to take him, but I've never taken Damon and it seemed like the fair thing to do to go with him this time."

"I fear riding in the limo with Damon will not be pleasant for anyone." Rebekah commented.

"Seriously," Caroline agreed and pulled on her sweater over her baby-doll tank top.

"Well, sorry, because I already asked him to go." Elena said looking down at the ground guiltily. "That means Stefan is going to be stuck at home all night with Katherine."

"She is still staying with them?" Caroline asked, surprised. "I thought they would have run her out of town by now."

"She seems intent on staying around now that she can." Elena grimaced and pulled a brave face. "I just have to deal with it. She is not going anywhere."

"No bueno." Caroline said and looked apologetically at Elena.

Rebekah got a text message and wasn't paying attention to anything that had been said about Katherine. Caroline tried to see who it was, but Rebekah seemed to make a point of walking slower so that her phone wouldn't be seen.

"Looks like I can't have dinner with you girls. I've got to go." Rebekah said then and started to head in the opposite direction, toward her house.

"Problems?" Elena asked, curious.

"It's just Elijah." Rebekah said nonchalantly. "I'll see you girls tomorrow for the dance."

"See you later." Caroline called and Rebekah left them.

"So, Damon, huh?" Caroline started up again.

"Don't judge me." Elena said and smiled down at her hands. "Who are you going with?"

Caroline sighed then and shrugged. "I guess I have to tell you."

Elena looked intrigued by how Caroline phrased her answer. "Do tell."

"Rebekah made me ask Elijah." Caroline said as if it were the silliest thing she'd ever heard.

Elena started laughing. Caroline shoved her lightly, not looking happy.

"I'm sorry. I just… can't picture Elijah at prom." Elena said through her laughter.

"That's what I said, but I was desperate to not go alone and who else was I going to ask?" Caroline was smiling despite herself. "He's not a bad choice."

"Just not the brother you would have wanted." Elena said knowingly.

"Please, I wouldn't have asked Klaus to go. That's like asking for the most awkward moment of my life." Caroline said with a sigh and then rolled her eyes. "Can you imagine me just asking him? _Oh hey Klaus, you took over my ex-boyfriends body for a while, tried to kill all of my friends, and offered me the world as compensation, want to go to prom? _No way."

"Geez, Car. You had no problem accepting going with him to New York, but suddenly it's above you to take him to prom?" Elena asked jokingly, bringing up a conversation she'd had with Caroline many times now.

"Hey, I had a good reason to go to New York and since when are you on Klaus' side?" Caroline said seriously.

"I'm not saying I'm on his side, but maybe Rebekah is right, maybe we should give him a chance at least." Elena argued. She seemed to be agreeing with Rebekah a lot lately and Caroline didn't like how it usually had to do with Klaus.

Was Caroline the only person who remembered who this guy is?

"I don't owe him the chance." Caroline concluded.

-x-

"We know you are here, we are coming." Caroline read the line over and over again as she looked down at the picture in her hand. It was a picture of the courthouse in Mystic Falls and it had the words painted in red over the front doors. There were two other pictures of the Church and the school with the writing on them as well. Caroline's mother had brought a copy of the picture home to show Caroline and warn her. Caroline hadn't been upset until she found out that she had to send someone out to repaint the front of the Church before tonight.

"I don't think they are referring to the Founder's." Liz Forbes said to her daughter.

"What would make you think they mean vampires?" Caroline asked with non-belief. "It's not exactly written anywhere we would be found."

"Because, they sent a staked vampire corpse to the Sheriff's house as well," Her mom said with more emphasis.

"So, what are they?" Caroline asked confused. She had her prom dress and make-up bag tucked under her arm, having been caught on the way out by her mother with the news.

"We don't know. Just that they are coming to clean out the town of its problem. I have a feeling it's why the Sheriff has been so lenient to go after you all. We think he has known for a while and has given whoever this is the names of all the known vampires in the town, meaning you." The previous Sheriff took a seat at her kitchen counter and put her face in her hands, rubbing the stress off of it. "I don't think you should go tonight."

"Mom," Caroline started to protest.

"I'm serious, Caroline. I don't want to lose you. Not after what I had to go through when I first found out what you are. I can't take the pain of thinking you are dead again. You're all I have." Caroline dropped her things and walked up to her mother, smothering her with a hug that wasn't nearly as strong as she wanted to give, but feared breaking her mother's back if she hugged too hard.

"Mom, I have a lot of enemies now and I can handle myself against them. I can fight my own battles." Caroline said poignantly. "Not to mention, I have two Original vampires going to the dance with me that have out-lived several enemies. Originals that are waiting at their house for me right now, so don't worry, okay? And don't do anything stupid to try and protect me. Trust me I'm going to out-live you."

Caroline tried to make the last part sound like a joke, but realized it probably was taken as the opposite to her mother. She just hugged her one last time, kissed her cheek, and headed out the door anyway.

If nothing else, she needed to warn her friends and hiding in her house until everything was over was not Caroline's style anyway.

By the time she reached Klaus' house, she had alerted every living vampire she knew in town, including the Originals about the threat. To no one's surprise, Rebekah and Elijah already knew something was going on.

"I have three different kinds of mascara I have tried and I don't like any of them." Rebekah exclaimed when she answered the door, not making much of the threat either and jumping immediately on Prom problems. Elijah was in the living room when the two girls walked by and Caroline waved at her date. It was hard for her to tell if he was dressed already for the dance. He was always wearing some sort of suit when she saw him and didn't know how seriously he was going to treat this evening. She was just glad her prom pictures weren't going to be memories of having an ugly date she didn't want to remember. She had to give Elijah his due; even if she wasn't attracted to him he still wasn't horrible to look at.

"I think you should use this one." Caroline said, pulling mascara out of her bag and giving it to Rebekah. "It has a hint of blue to it that will bring out your eyes."

The two changed into their dresses and Caroline was excited to hear that Rebekah had paid a hair stylist to do both of their hairs. Caroline was so pleased that she wasn't going to the dance with her arms already tired from straightening, curling, and styling. She turned to her friend as her hair was being worked on and took in what Rebekah was wearing.

Rebekah had a black silk dress on that clung tightly to her figure and pooled on the floor. It had the added feature of a white ruffle that wrapped around her right shoulder like a sash and met on her left hip where a silver star was adorned. Her hair was parted on the left and pulled lightly back into flowered shaped bun with curled layers of hair making up the petals. Her make-up was heavily applied around the eyes, but faded out from there.

Caroline was wearing a long white lace dress with a v-neck that gave her an hour glass shape. Along with the dress was a matching white jacket, with a popped up collar and with short sleeves, which ended right under her chest. Her make-up was light except for the red lipstick she chose to add some color to her look. Her hair was down and parted to the side with full curls that bounced on her shoulders. Her bangs were curled also, but were pulled away from her face like a movie star from the forties.

With the two girls all set and the limo waiting downstairs, Caroline was actually excited when she walked down the steps in the Mikaelson's house and took Elijah's arm. He apparently hadn't been dressed earlier as he was now wearing a black tux with a long jacket.

"Thank you for allowing me to be your date." Elijah said to her as she walked with him outdoors.

"Thank you for saving me from going alone." Caroline countered and the two crawled in to the limo behind Rebekah. Matt was waiting inside for them with Elena and Damon.

Matt and Damon's tux's looked almost identical and Caroline got the distinct feeling that it wasn't an accident. That Matt's tux was a loan from the Salvatore's.

Elena looked gorgeous in her sleeveless gown. Caroline was not surprised by that, but loved the dark purple color of Elena's dress and how it had one short skirt under a longer black lace skirt. It was something Caroline would have worn.

After a few greetings went around from everyone, the limo fell silent and Caroline prayed that the church was quicker to get to than she remembered. Damon was already opening a bottle of champagne and everyone was taking a glass before it was even offered, as if giving everyone something to do. It had to have been the most awkward drive Caroline had ever taken.

"I think we should toast." Rebekah's voice broke the silence. "To my finally getting to see one of these things."

Her tone didn't imply anything negative, but Caroline didn't miss the glance that she gave Elena when she said it and it made Caroline frown.

"To prom," Caroline corrected and lifted her glass. The other's repeated her toast and then drank deeply.

"I can't wait to see what you girls did with Fell's Church." Matt spoke before the silence fell again. "It's been a secret to everyone for the last week what you've done since you didn't let anyone else on the committee help set-up anything."

"Oh, it's definitely going to be amazing." Elena said with a smile. "Caroline out-did herself. I didn't even think it possible."

"I amaze myself." Caroline said, ever the humble person.

This got the group finally talking and only a few comments were made by Damon that referred to the fact that he had made out with every girl in the car at one point and Matt had made it easier to swallow when he stated that the same could be said for him. Caroline figured it was a miracle that Damon hadn't said more, but figured he was being slightly restrained for Elena. It was a blessing that made the car ride a lot easier and even Elijah had joined the conversation at that point saying he was glad he couldn't say the same, which got a laugh from everyone.

The car came to an abrupt stop then and everyone in the car seemed to look out the windows at where they were. Caroline was getting nervous as she looked at the steps leading up to the old church. She couldn't place why she had the odd feeling in her stomach, but she wished it would go away so she could enjoy herself.

"Here we go," Damon said and pushed the door to the limo open on his side. He reached his hand in and helped Elena out as well.

Caroline was the last to get out, assisted by Elijah and she smiled up at him for it. She was actually discovering that Elijah was the perfect date for her. He was old school enough to be a gentleman without her having to worry about feelings pushing things too far. She could have an actual night of joy with her friends and a date without the added heat of being emotionally tangled up in everything. She could keep perspective as she entertained herself. It was quite the liberating feeling for her.

They walked into the main room and the group headed straight for the dance floor where Bonnie was already dancing with Jaime. The two matched with Bonnie in a classic long red dress that had straps that started out thin, but grew and turned into a long cape down her back. Jaime had a black tux with red cummerbund and vest. The two looked like models.

"Hey, I thought you weren't coming?" Caroline said over the music and hugged Bonnie. Bonnie had made a point the day before that she decided that she didn't want to go, since her past with dances was pretty murky and the others had respected her decision, so it was weird for Caroline to see Bonnie had changed her mind so easily.

"And miss prom?" Bonnie said in Caroline's ear. "No, chance."

"We could have picked you two up in the limo. There was tons of room." Caroline felt bad that she hadn't double checked that Bonnie wasn't coming as she watched the girl hug the others.

"That's okay. We made it here anyways." Bonnie said with a smile and squeezed Caroline's arm.

The group seemed to pull apart then as the couples went off to dance together. Caroline took Elijah with her and the two stepped on the floor just as a slow song began.

"That was welcomed." Elijah said suddenly as the two placed their hands in the respective spots to dance.

"How so?" Caroline asked confused by what he meant.

"I wasn't prone to the idea of dancing in the more modern style." Elijah said with a small smile and Caroline returned a smile of her own.

"Oh," Caroline glanced towards the stage then as the suns swirls slowed with the beat of the song and lit up only a fraction of the room they were in. It was considerably darker than she thought it would be, but she figured that was because they had tested everything during the day. "So, how have things been with you and Rebekah? You two seem to enjoy being stuck here."

"Well, this is where we grew up. We are more than willing to call it home." Elijah answered honestly, but only paused to add. "You know, you can ask about Niklaus. I can tell you would rather hear about him."

Caroline tried not to look upset with her date. She had wanted to hear what Klaus had been up to, but she didn't want to seem as obvious about it as she apparently did to Elijah. Although he picked up on things faster than most do.

"How do you do that?" Caroline asked, deflecting his question as she did. "How do you always know what's going on?"

"It's incredible what you can learn just by paying attention to the people around you." Elijah said with a tone that seemed more like his normal reserved self.

"That sounds like you are politely trying to say I'm easy to read." Caroline bemused with an added sly smile.

Elijah didn't answer this, but looked around the room. Caroline could see his eyes land on his sister and then move back to her.

"You have a stubborn-ness and courage that many your age don't, Caroline. You fight selflessly for your friends and you kept moving even after you suffered a loss." Elijah was keeping eye contact with Caroline as he spoke, not letting her break away from his gaze. "If that is what you are afraid people can see when they look at you, then I wonder about your priorities."

Caroline was stunned. It was probably the biggest compliment anyone had ever given her and it wasn't about her appearance or her sense of style.

"I can see why my brother is infatuated with you." Elijah spoke after a few minutes. Turning the conversation back on the track it had been before.

"You're not going to try to use your magnificent way with words to persuade me into liking your brother, are you? Because I don't honestly think he's the right person for me." Caroline began, already feeling the twinge of guilt she always did when she purposely made an effort to push Klaus, or any talk of him, away.

"Interesting, Caroline," Elijah pulled away from her and moved them off the dance floor as the song changed the beat and made conversation more difficult. "Did it ever occur to you that it may be you who are right for him?"

Caroline couldn't respond and excused herself from Elijah then. She was going to head to the bathroom, but found herself heading outside instead. Her mind was trying to find a response to the thoughts that just overloaded her mind. Elijah had this very distinct way of leaving people speechless and not just by breaking their necks either, and without fail he had done that to Caroline twice in one conversation. She was just about to let herself consider his words might be truer than she would let herself believe them to be when she remembered her own comment to Elijah about the way he influences people with his words.

Klaus was very lucky to have the siblings he did. At every turn they seemed to be trying to push Caroline closer to him. His presence wasn't even needed for her to be plagued by thoughts of him.

She headed out the front doors to the entranceway steps. She needed to catch her breath and to breathe air that wasn't full of prom magic and space themes. There was an irony to that, she needed space from space. She needed quiet Mystic Falls to calm down her mind.

As she took a third or fourth step down, she realized her mistake of going outside. To her chagrin, Klaus was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking like he was trying to decide when to make an entrance.

"Don't tell me that you are leaving already?" There was that accent again that made Caroline shiver in delight.

"You're back." Caroline said, wasting no time on switching from looking surprised to looking blasé.

"I said I would be." Klaus walked up the steps and met her. The steps made it awkward for Caroline, so she kept her self facing the parking lot a head of her as Klaus came to stand at her side. "You did get my note."

"That was nearly five months ago." Caroline suddenly wished she had something to do with her gloved hands, but couldn't think of anything. She fixed her short jacket twice and then looked back to Klaus. "Don't tell me you came back for prom."

"I do enjoy a good dance." Klaus said and put his hand out to her as if that was a subtle hint that he wanted to dance with her. She ignored the hand and crossed her arms instead.

"So what exactly were you doing while you were away?" She asked trying to hint that she didn't exactly want to dance right now. His brother's words were still playing in her mind exaggerated by the subject of them being present.

"Kol and I were travelling." Klaus said dropping his hand. "Is that all right with you?"

"And what were you doing while you travelled?" Caroline asked, not taking the bait with the question meant to upset her enough to set the conversation on a different course and leave him without actually answering her question. He had used that on her before and she wasn't falling for it this time.

"If you really want to know, we were looking for werewolves, specifically the leaders of their packs." Klaus growled out at her.

"Figures," Caroline said simply. "Still trying to build your army?"

"Not exactly."

This made Caroline drop her arms and look fully at Klaus.

"Then what?"

"I was making myself known as Alpha by killing off the leaders of the packs, mostly up in Canada." Klaus said, clearly not use to explaining himself or his actions to others.

"You don't have Elena's blood anymore to make your hybrids from, why even keep up with the wolves?" Caroline felt like she was nagging and pulled back a little on her questioning.

"I'm looking for my father's line." Klaus answered honestly and was distracted suddenly.

Caroline saw as he turned abruptly and then saw the arm that moved in front of her, catching an arrow before it hit her in the chest. Caroline's eyes went wide as she looked down at the arrow in Klaus' grip and then looked up to see the group of about ten people emerge from around the cars. Their hands were full of crossbows or guns and Caroline was betting that the bullets were wooden, but didn't want to personally find out.

"We were having a conversation." Klaus growled out loudly as he turned his back on Caroline, stepping in front of her to block any more shots from being aimed at her. He looked like he was about to go down and attack the people when Caroline took his hand and started pulling him into the Church.

"There's more." Caroline said drawing his attention where more people were surrounding the church on the left and right. "There's too many. We need the others."

Caroline was trying to talk sense into Klaus, who wasn't budging from his spot on the steps as a second arrow flew at him. He deflected it easily, but the wooden bullets that started flying made him move into the structure with Caroline. Shards must have hit Klaus, but he didn't seem to notice them the way Caroline did as she pulled a piece of wood from her left leg. It had been the only one to hit her and she glared up at Klaus as she took it out.

"What have you done now?" Caroline asked, pissed now that he had stayed out there long enough to get her shot at.

"You cannot possibly think this is my fault." Klaus was looking almost hurt that she had made this seem his fault.

"Isn't it always?" Caroline screeched at him, and realized she was still holding his hand. She let it go and turned to see the others were slowly starting to come into the main hall room. The gun shots had freaked out most of the dance-goers who were running out into the groups of attackers. They were being hosed down as they ran and the smell of vervain was ever present in the water that was being sprayed on them.

"Well, that cuts off our exits." Damon said looking out one of the windows at the groups who were being soaked. "Where'd they get that much vervain?"

"All they have to do is mix it in the water for a few days and the whole thing becomes permeated with it." Elijah said appearing in the hall with his sister and Matt as his side. Bonnie and Jamie were behind them.

"What do we do now?" Elena's words left everyone silent as the group seemed to be at a loss.


	11. Saved

So, I tried to get this out quicker for you all since the last chapter took over a week and I had been trying to make it more of a 5-6 day in-between wait at the most. So I hope you all appreciate this.

Also, I just wanna point out the rating on this story. So, yeah, there's that.

And last, thank you all again for your reviews. I always look forward to them! See you soon. :)

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 11: Saved

Caroline tried not to notice how Klaus seemed to be staring at her continuously as they all moved from the front room toward the dance floor and away from the front entrance where they could be seen through the glass windows. They were now the only people left in the Church and it was starting to feel kind of creepy with all the dark drapes about and the lights that continued to move of their own accord even though no one was dancing under them anymore. The fog machines puffed out occasional gusts of smoke and the sun on the stage was still swirling with color to the music which had been left on a playlist and abandoned by the DJ. Caroline let her head drop back to look up and remembered the ceiling and its twinkling lights. It really did look like a clear night sky.

"We could easily take down these numbers. We've done it before." Klaus said to Elijah, barely moving his eyes away from Caroline to say it.

"We had more weapons at our disposal then. Not to mention a witch on our side." Elijah looked to Bonnie then who crossed her arms. "We have no idea of their forces or their abilities."

"I don't feel any other power near, but that doesn't mean there isn't. Those are humans out there. They won't heal as fast as you all do. Knocking them out, even if I could manage such a large number, would mean putting them in a hospital." Bonnie said, clearly not willing to help at this point. It was even a surprise to Caroline she hadn't run out of there. Matt, Jamie, and Bonnie could make it through the vervain without a problem, yet, the three of them stood by like the problem was just as much there as it was others.

"Is anyone else feeling a sense of déjà vu?" A voice came from across the dance floor and Elena appeared dressed in tight black jeans, leather boots, and a laced black tank top. Only it wasn't Elena as she was currently standing to Damon's left, it was Katherine and behind her was Stefan. Everyone looked to them in surprise. Even Klaus seemed to break away from his gazing at Caroline to look at the new comers.

"What are you two doing here?" Damon's voice rang out over the music at the new additions to the group.

"They had a group of werewolves at our house, Katherine and I got out just before they broke in and made our way here to warn you all about them." Stefan said coming to stand with his brother and Elena. Katherine had her eye on Elijah as she moved along with Stefan over to the group and didn't seem to like the fact that Klaus was there either. "We got inside a minute before the shooting began."

Caroline looked around then at how they were all standing. Klaus was standing next to her and on his left next to him was his brother, but on Caroline's right was Rebekah and just to her right Matt, with Jaime and Bonnie next to him. Elena, Stefan, Damon, and Katherine were all on the opposite side of the group where Caroline stood, looking like they weren't far enough away from Klaus.

The vervain smell was starting to seep into the building, leaving Caroline feeling nauseous and she could tell she wasn't the only one affected as she saw the others faces start to harden from the smell. Since when was vervain this strong?

"Wait, there were wolves involved?" Caroline heard herself blurt out and found herself the center of attention in the group. "They are using uncontrollable werewolves?"

"As well as hunters," Katherine added, not looking happy. "That symbol on their jackets is a sign of a group from out West that go into towns to cleanse them of their problem. I ran into them about fifty years ago. I've never seen this many of them before or heard of them using wolves, that's new, especially since they could attack anyone and not just vampires."

"We've seen that many before." Elijah said turning to his brother and meeting his eye. "That symbol is of our father's creation. It looks like his legacy still haunts us."

"It was probably him who gave them the idea to use wolves." Rebekah added. "They must not know that he is dead."

"Or they are acting on that fact. This is the place where he died. They could be here to clean up after his failure, or even be looking for him." Elijah tried many theories, all fitting to the situation. "It would seem he had a back-up plan to his attack after all."

Caroline turned to look at Klaus then. She was right in assuming that this was, again, his fault.

"So we are surrounded by hunters with vervain water hoses and have werewolves scattered around the town picking up the scraps." Damon said coming to stand closer to the center of them room. "We can assume that they are at all the houses around here."

"Not all of them." Matt spoke up then. "My house will be safe and so will Elena's and Bonnie's."

"Well, that would be a comforting fact if ninety percent of us could get through the water." Damon bickered at Matt. "We still don't have a way of getting to the houses."

"Not to mention a few of us aren't invited in." Rebekah said referring to herself and her siblings. "Our house will probably be surrounded by wolves and hunters the most. This is if it even still stands… Oh God, Kol."

"He's fine. He refused to stay at the house. He's in a hotel outside of town." Klaus spoke. It calmed Rebekah down, but still left them without a way out.

"Well, looks like history is about to repeat itself," Stefan said walking back from the window he was looking out. "They've resorted to burning this place down. They've got gasoline and torches lined around the edge of this place."

"What is with this town and burning down churches?" Katherine said exasperated, checking the outside for herself by heading over to a window.

It seemed to dawn on Elena the second it came to Caroline's mind.

"Once a Founder," Elena started meeting Caroline's eye.

"Always a Founder," Caroline agreed. This left the rest of the group to stare at them as if they had lost their minds.

"There might be another way out." Caroline tried to explain as she was already moving.

The two girls started toward the front staircase then that lead up to the second floor, but instead of going up they both headed down to where the basement of the church had been. When the girls had checked it last week it had only held old Bible's, church pews, and cobwebs tucked into it, but it never occurred to them to look to see if the Founder's had made a safe exit out of the bottom of it like the old church had. Where the church was sitting now closer to town would be over one of the caverns that connected down below and would lead them out under the forest, unlike how the old church had only had a small cavern under it that housed the vampires for over a hundred and fifty years.

When they found the door that was barricaded in the far back, Caroline and Elena knew they weren't wrong about them making the churches identical and like the other church this door lead down into a cavern.

"Well, it's a good thing we have people with us who used to navigate these things on a regular basis." Elena said turning toward Elijah as she said it, remembering how he had explained this before trapping her down in the caves with his sister as her guard a few months back.

"And if we run into wolves on the way out of the caves?" Stefan asked as if trying to think this plan all the way through.

"I can stop them." Bonnie said then, keeping Jaime at her side as she followed them all. "I can knock them out long enough to give us humans enough time to run."

No one seemed to make a point that the one thing that healed a werewolf bite for a vampire was currently among them, but everyone seemed to understand that the humans were at risk more.

"Right, well then, Originals lead the way, humans after them and then the rest of us at the end in case we are followed." Elena said and Caroline nodded in agreement with her friend.

A silence fell on the group as one-by-one they all made their way down into the cave and into the pathways down below. Damon and Stefan blocked the door they came down from with a couple of pews they dragged through, stopping any humans from being able to follow from that direction.

Caroline could hear a tearing noise and saw as Rebekah ripped away the tight bottom of her skirt up to her knees, allowing her to be able to run if she needed to. Caroline was glad that her dress hadn't been as tightly wrapped and noted that Elena's dress had a short skirt, well if you didn't count the lace semi-skirt wrapped around her which wasn't going to hinder her anyways. Bonnie didn't seem to be having a problem with her dress either, but she had a good portion of it lifted off the ground and tightly fisted in her left hand.

It took them twenty minutes to get through the thinner parts of the cave near the Church and things were starting to look more like the walls of the Lockwood cellar to Caroline. She purposefully kept her head down until she could tell that they were heading up at one point. When they came upon a set of stairs leading out is when everyone started to get tenser. They didn't know what to expect in Mystic Falls right now and it looked like they had come out in the middle of the forest until she recognized Wickery Bridge up to the north.

A sharp growl was heard from the left and seemed to come right for the group.

To everyone's surprise the wolf was stopped in its tracks by Klaus who had it around the throat and lifted off the ground.

"Are you going to knock him out, or should I kill him?" Klaus turned to Bonnie then, his eyes glowed with the yellowing of the wolf's blood in his own veins coming forward and Caroline was caught off-guard by them.

Bonnie seemed to come to her senses and held out her hand then. When the wolf went limp, Klaus tossed it to the ground and Caroline was able to make her eyes look away at this point. She was taking in the looks that Rebekah and Elijah were giving each other as they looked back and forth between themselves and Klaus. She understood their confusion. Why had he jumped in front of the wolf first and why hadn't he automatically killed it?

"We need to hurry. How close are we to Elena's house?" Bonnie said looking to Elijah then. Her eyes clearly couldn't see as well as the vampires.

"It's not far from here, but it'll take some walking." Elijah answered her, pointing toward the direction they needed to take. "Since, we aren't invited. I believe this is a good time to part ways."

"Where's Katherine?" Damon asked then, turning back around to look.

"Saving herself," Elena said, not surprised by her doppelganger's sudden disappearance.

"One less vampire to worry about," Bonnie said and seemed to side with Elena on being glad that Katherine was gone.

"I'm right here." Katherine said to the group, she wasn't in the back with the Salvatore's anymore, but was up closer to where Elijah was standing. Elena and Bonnie gave each other a quick glance, which Elena just shrugged at.

"My house isn't far from here either," Matt said then, reminding them all that they needed to get back to the plan. "Rebekah and I can go there."

"Mine isn't far." Caroline added.

"You're house is probably not a safe bet." Stefan said to Caroline. "Not if they came to our house even after Damon drank the vervain in front of them."

"I'm heading home anyways. My mom is supposed to have tonight off and I want to make sure she made it home in this." Caroline pushed; wanting to make sure her mother had listened to her about not doing anything stupid.

"They are all to the east, we don't need to split up yet. Let's go." Elena said, following where Elijah had pointed before.

Once they got to the edge of the woods and were out on main roads, the number of wolves they ran into increased, leaving Bonnie to be quicker at targeting them. At one point she took down five at once.

"Splitting up time," Damon called as the neared one of the main streets that Matt lived off of. He and Rebekah headed down the road together and sent a text to Elena when they were safely inside. Bonnie and Jamie headed their own way toward her house and Caroline started to make her way toward her own.

She got about five paces away from the others when she turned back on the group and fixed her eyes on Klaus.

"You coming?" Caroline asked him as she planted her foot impatiently. His awe showed.

"Well, it would seem unwise not to." Klaus said leaving his brother's side and walking toward Caroline.

Stefan, Damon, and Elena were all making their way in the opposite direction toward Elena's house. This left Katherine and Elijah. Caroline saw how not a single word was spoken between the two, but as one rushed off the other followed them.

"Well, my place is the only one you've been invited into, so it looks like I don't have much of a choice, but to bring you along." Caroline said now that the others were out of earshot.

"You know, under all that begrudging talk was actually a compliment to me." Klaus said with a smile. "I'm honored that you care enough to invite me along with you."

"Whatever." Caroline turned around then and headed to her house. Klaus caught up and walked along with her. "If my house is under werewolf surveillance it is a safer bet to have you around."

Klaus just let this comment go as they walked and Caroline didn't like the unsettling silence that fell between them. It reminded her too much of New York.

"So where were Elijah and Katherine going to go?" Caroline asked, turning to look at Klaus.

"I would assume a hotel." Klaus said with sly grin.

Caroline raised an eyebrow at that and tilted her head.

"To Kol," Klaus added. "Outside of town. Elijah makes a point to keep an eye on all of his siblings."

"Oh," Caroline answered and was glad to see her house. When she walked in, she saw that it was empty and frowned at that. She went into her room and closed door behind her to change, dialing her mother's phone as she did to see where she was.

"Caroline?" The voice came over the phone quickly.

"Mom, where are you?"

"I'm out by the Grill. The town is going crazy. We've gotten reports all over the place. People are saying they've seen wolves, the Church is on fire, and there are people in town running around with water guns. The Sheriff says it's just pranksters, but that's not the case, is it? Please tell me you are nowhere near this." Mrs. Forbes voice shook over the phone as she talked to Caroline.

"I'm home." Caroline quickly exclaimed. "I thought you'd be here."

"Not with this mess. I could be out all night." Her mother sounded tired already.

"Mom, just come home. Those aren't pranksters they are hunters and the report of the werewolves is true. If you run into one…" Caroline's voice trailed off as she pulled a shirt over her head. "Just come home."

"I can't I have a job to do."

"Mom, get out of there." Caroline urged.

"I have to go. Stay inside." The phone went dead.

"Mom, mom?" Caroline tried even though she knew she couldn't hear her anymore. She threw the phone to the bed and slipped on the pair of jeans she had in her hand then headed back out to the living room where Klaus was sitting. She had forgotten he was there.

"I'm going after my mother." Caroline stated, knowing that she was going to never hear the end of it from her mother and not wanting to have to explain herself to Klaus right now.

"Then, I'm coming with you." He said easily.

"Fine," Caroline practically barked out at him. "I'm driving."

When Caroline got outside, she remembered that her car was still at Klaus' house and smacked her forehead.

"Shit," Caroline ground out and turned to look to her neighbor's house. Their Mazda was in the driveway and she spent no time deciding to take it. She knew for a fact that they kept a spare key in a lockbox under the driver's side. She grabbed the little magnetic box and broke it in her hand, pulling out the key.

Klaus didn't say anything to this, but never missed a move that Caroline made.

The drive over to the Grill was silent. Caroline had shut of the radio and was glad that Klaus didn't try to say anything right now. He was being overly quiet for someone she normally couldn't get to shut up. Of course, the same could be said for her.

"I don't see her car." Caroline mumbled out as they passed by the Grill. People were trying to get through the doorway and one or two people had chased the car carrying large orange water guns in their arms. It was the craziest Caroline had seen Mystic Falls. Normally everything was kept so quiet by the Founder's council that you couldn't tell what was going on even after it happened.

When Caroline saw the blonde spiky hair in the driver's side of the one of the police vehicles up ahead, she went for it. She pulled up along her mother's car and frowned at her.

"What are you doing here? I said stay home." Came her mother's warning as the woman stepped out of her car and walked around to the driver's side to her daughter. She wasn't even going to begin to ask why her daughter was with Klaus.

"And I told you not to do anything stupid." Caroline said, getting out of her car. Just as she did, someone ran by with a water gun and sprayed at her. Caroline turned her head away just in time. The aim was low and it hit Caroline's jeans. Caroline could feel the stinging of the liquid seeping through her pants, but tried to ignore it. Her jeans had saved her from feelings the worse of it.

"I'm an officer of the law, you lout. I could have you arrested." Caroline's mother called at the man. He had to of been about early twenties and just stopped long enough to see if the liquid affected her before scurrying off again.

Caroline had apparently played off that she wasn't affected by the vervain well enough that he kept going, but was now bothered by the fact that she could smell the stuff on her.

"You need to get home, Caroline." Her mother started up again as she turned back on her daughter.

"Not without you." Caroline ordered and pulled her mother along over to her police car. "By morning all the wolves will be back in human form and all the hunters will hopefully have left town. You can go about fixing the town then. Right now, it's a lost cause to anyone who is out."

Caroline stepped away from her mother to get back in her stolen car, when something caught her eye. A long dark shadow emerged from a back alleyway and slowly came to a stop near her mother's police car.

"Mom, get in the car slowly." Caroline said evenly to her mother. The wolf looked at Caroline, but then turned its attention back to her mother. Every move her mother tried to make just made the animal growl at her, leaving her mother unable to move a muscle. Caroline tried to come around to her mother's side of the car, but found the wolf making its way closer to her mother as she did so. So she stopped. Her mother's hand was on her gun, but Caroline wasn't sure her mother could draw it quickly enough to get a shot out to stop the wolf or that Caroline could get herself between the wolf and her mother fast enough to stop it.

"Hey, over here," Caroline called to the wolf, but it only ignored her. Like it had already decided which victim would be the easier to grab. Weren't wolves supposed to hate vampires though? Couldn't it tell she was the better kill?

The wolf seemed to make its move then as it growled out, jumped, and lashed open its jaw. Caroline moved fast. She came to her mother's side of the car and jumped in front of her mother to take on the brunt of the attack and throw it away. Only she wasn't attacked.

The wolf had been stopped mid-air and was pulled backwards to the ground. Klaus had gotten out of the car and over to it before it had gone after either of the Forbes' women. He wasted no time in pulling it back to him and knocking its head against the ground. Then when it seemed to be subdued, he tore out the heart of the wolf before chucking it to the side.

"Get home, now." Klaus said with a dark demeanor shadowing his face, and Caroline found herself pushing her mother into her police car and dropping herself into its passenger seat. Her eyes never left Klaus' as she moved.

It came out of nowhere. It was a rush of adrenaline seeing this look from Klaus, his eyes still glowing a gold that pulled her in again. She was having trouble deciphering what she was feeling right now. She had this weird mixture of happiness that her mother was okay and of wanting to thank Klaus, but there was something else growing there. Something else she could feel as she looked at him that was more than just glad he was around to save them. It was something more than appreciation and she could feel it swelling inside her. Sometimes she really hated having the over-dramatic vampire emotions when she should be logical.

"Aren't you coming?" she said out her window to Klaus.

"I'll meet you back at your house later. Stay inside." Klaus warned her and he was gone in a flash. Her mother pulled the car out of the Grill's parking lot and started their way home.

"Should I even ask what he was doing here with you?" Her mother sounded uneasy with the question, like she knew something was going on between them.

Was there?

"He showed up at the Church just as we were all attacked. We all got out, but all the known vampire houses in town are being scourged by werewolves so we had everyone split up and head to houses that wouldn't be targeted." Caroline turned her head toward her mother than and gave her a look of concern. "He's been invited into our house, so…"

Her mother didn't respond to this immediately as she took two corners faster than she should have and had them nearly home.

"So our house isn't surrounded by wolves then?" She started, but before Caroline could answer she also added: "and you thought he needed safe keeping at our house? He can't defend himself on his own?"

"He can, but he's also the creator of our lineage. Unfortunately we need him alive. If he goes, so do I, and I don't remember seeing any wolves at home." Caroline scrunched her eyebrows together thinking about her words. Was that really why she invited him, to protect her and the others? It seemed a plausible answer, so why did she feel like she was lying? Why did she let Klaus run off alone this time and not before? Why had he stayed after they got out of the Church? His family would have been fine on their own escaping town, but he stayed with the group and so had the others. What was going on with the Originals?

They pulled up in front of the house and after a quick surveying of the area they both headed for the door. It took a few minutes to check the house as well and to secure all the windows and doors before the two settled down and went to their separate rooms. Her mom didn't seem to want to talk about it anymore and Caroline really wanted to get out of the jeans that were still stinging her.

She flopped down on her bed and let her mind wander. She really needed to sort things out in her head. She was so sure that any attraction she had felt for Klaus a few months ago had been entirely because he was in Tyler's body and she had let any feeling toward him be shoved away because of that. Then there was all those feelings from before Tyler had been killed, of all the times Klaus had made a point to shock her with his words. She had scoffed at them, but she had kept that picture he drew. Hell, it was still in the drawer next to her bed. What did that matter? Had she really felt anything she would have no problem seeing it now that he was back. It wasn't like she had spent the past few months pining for him like a lovesick dog. Although, the text messages she had read between Klaus and Rebekah made her think that she hadn't really let him leave her mind either. Even Rebekah had noticed how often Caroline found herself asking about him or bringing him up in conversation, and there was the thing about her sighing at his name.

So what? Klaus was Rebekah's brother. Every time she hung out with Rebekah was like hanging out with a physical reminder of Klaus' existence and she had been in and out of his house several times during those months as well, of course she was going to think about him. His presence was kind of in her face that way.

But then, why was she always reminded of his stories when Rebekah wasn't around? She couldn't even go to the grocery store with her mom without seeing a bottle of honey and snickering at the story about Elijah or even look at her wardrobe without seeing the clothes he had bought her in New York. Even the smell of the vervain mixed shampoo her mother used was a reminder to her.

She sat up in her bed then and found her eyes falling on the pair of jeans she had tossed into her laundry bin. They had been spraying vervain on people and seeing how it affected them, to weed out the vampires, but had that been all? The way the wolf had ignored Caroline and had focused on her mother bothered Caroline. Had that been because she wasn't wearing any fresh vervain like Caroline was? Could the wolves train themselves to not attack people with certain smells? Even Caroline had noticed the smell was stronger than normal.

She picked up the pants and sniffed at them, trying to decipher why the reeked more than normal, when it came to her. Wolfs bane, she could smell Wolfs bane mixed in the liquid. That smell would certainly keep a wolf away.

She pulled out her phone and sent out a mass text to all of her friends and even to Elijah and Rebekah as well. She had stupidly deleted Klaus number a while back and couldn't get out a message to him, but hopefully one of his siblings would.

Elena had texted her back saying that she and the Salvatore's agreed with Caroline that the vervain smell at the Church had to have been mixed with something to make it so strong and Wolfs Bane wasn't a bad idea to throw on people when surly wolves were let loose. It all tied together. Even Rebekah said she had thought so and wished she noticed before.

Within twenty minutes Caroline had gotten response from all of them saying that they all had the same opinion about the Wolfs Bane being the only answer when there was a tap at her window.

Caroline found herself jumping off the bed, but only to find she was staring out the window at Klaus. His jacket was missing and he was wearing only the black vest and white button down shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Why don't you use the front door?" She asked when she pulled the window open. It was entertaining to see Klaus ungracefully climb through.

"Thrilled to see you as well," Klaus said and turned to close the window himself.

"Well, where'd you go?" Caroline asked, trying to ignore his comment. She found herself looking at the clock on her wall, it was just after midnight.

"I had some business to take care of and I am not a patient person." Klaus said taking a seat at her desk and lounging like it was his room he was in. Then he quickly added: "not normally, anyways."

Caroline found herself unsure what to say, she was glad that Klaus was back, but she was also suddenly very acutely aware of the small space in her bedroom, especially with the queen-sized bed in the middle of it. She remained standing, hopping from one foot to the other, holding her phone awkwardly in both hands. She tried to tell herself not to think of the scenarios that were suddenly playing through her mind and making the hunger, that normal only thirsted in her, want something else.

"Did you hear about the Wolfs Bane?" Caroline asked him then, putting her phone down on her desk.

"Elijah called me. I had recognized the smell at the Church, seeing as I am affected by it with being a Hybrid, and made the connection that it was being used in such a way when you were sprayed with it earlier." Klaus said with an all-knowing smile on his face. "I also remembered someone else who seemed to have been covered with the smell as well."

"Who?" Caroline asked, not making the connection.

"Let's just say that things in Mystic Falls will be better off now." Klaus still had a smile on his face and Caroline did not like it. It made her want to smack the news out of him.

"You know, you're ferocity for killing anything that bothers you is not making you any friends." Caroline said crossing her arms.

"What can I say, Love? It's what I do." Klaus cocked his head to the side as he said this and leaned back more on the chair so that it was on its hind legs. Caroline found herself locking her eyes on the closet doors and trying not to look anywhere else.

"Well, it needs to stop." Caroline stood defiantly, but felt odd as her eyes connected with his.

"Caroline, the only reason why it's needed is to keep you safe. You want so badly to stay in this town, then I'm going to keep this town from coming after you in any way that I have to." His words were a low grumble and Klaus stood up at this point, the chair making a thud as it hit the floor with relief from the weight. He took a step toward her.

Caroline should have been worried about her mother hearing, but her mother never called out to her like she normally did and Caroline could hear the steady breathing of her mother telling her the woman was asleep.

"You don't have to do that. I can take care of myself." Caroline was saying the words and knew somewhere that what she was saying was true, but the stronger part of her was busy fighting her cravings and not paying attention.

Klaus smirked and nodded as if to agree, but then looked up at her eyes and stepped forward again.

"Three times tonight you were under attack and I was there to defend you." Klaus said lightly, his eyes on her lips now. He clearly knew what he was doing.

Caroline was backed up into her bed side table and could suddenly hear "Help I'm Alive" by Metric playing. She had turned on her music player by accident and her Itouch was playing just loud enough that she wouldn't have to worry about her mother hearing Klaus.

Or her.

"I didn't ask you to." Caroline said, barely finding her voice. Her inner monologue was telling her not to look at his lips, but she found she couldn't look away.

Oh, screw it.

"I wanted-" Klaus didn't finish his sentence as Caroline propelled herself forward and kissed him.

His mouth met hers and she was relieved to feel his controlled, skilled lips on hers. He was soft, but firm and knew what he wanted. In no time, his tongue was prying her mouth open and playing with hers. Her hands were on his vest and pulling the buttons through the holes quickly getting it off of him. His shirt followed, this time the buttons weren't even touched. They flung across the room.

His mouth left her as he pulled the sleeves off and his lips found their way down to her neck, making marks with his lips that he couldn't with his teeth.

She didn't know when it happened, but there were now on the bed, her back relaxing and arching on the comforter as he moved further down, following the 'u' of her shirt down to her chest, she hadn't even been wearing a bra and his other hand was taking advantage of that. Then the shirt was gone, her arms were up and she was glad at the speeds vampires could move. She pulled his face up to hers again, wanting his lips on hers and he easily obliged. She flipped him then and had him on his back, her legs tightly pinning him down and not missing the tightness in his slacks.

If there was ever a time to stop herself, it was now as she looked down at him. She took him in, shirtless, and being straddled, the look on his face as a form of contentment that was only gained from what they were doing, a form of complete lust. Only she didn't stop, she leaned back down to him and captured his lips once more. His hands fell to her hips pulling her closer and then they spun again, with him on top. She had a feeling that she was going to have to fight him for top and she had no problem with that, until his mouth went down to her stomach and she found herself giggling, then moaning.

She hadn't ever had this experience as he went lower. She couldn't ever remember anyone of the other guys she was with immediately going down on her. Not saying that none of them ever had, but usually it was a treat or after the fact. Klaus was making it his first priority and she was gone in the instant she felt his lips.


	12. Conditions

_The Wayward Future_

Chapter 12: Conditions

"_What should have been a night of dancing and prom kings and queens turned into a disaster after a group of pranksters attacked the Fell's Church. Students are saying that the men and women in dark clothing and wearing an odd symbol on their jackets approached the school opening fire on the steps, before spraying all those who were trying to run from the noise with water cannons. Once cleared out, the group lit the building on fire with gasoline and left it to burn down. This is the second time the town has lost a church to a fire after a fatal incident in 1864 that killed several. Luckily, no reports of anyone having been inside the church have come to light at this time and the officer's of Mystic Falls have been scrambling all night to catch these pranksters and bring a sense of normalcy back to the small town." _

Caroline was awoken by the sounds of the news report coming from the living room and had her attention fixed on it as she lay with her eyes closed, curious to see how the news would explain the behavior from last night. Of course, they were going to blame it on pranksters. Hadn't her mother used that term last night? It was clearly the report the police were sticking to.

"_Reports have also come in within the last hour of another burning in the town of the newly built Mikaelson house off Covington road. Just after Midnight the mansion went up in flames and left many in the nearby area shocked at the attack on the new residents. Once the fire was put out, firefighters entered the home to find the owner of the household Niklaus Mikaelson had been burned alive. So far his body has been the only one recovered and firefighters are convinced Mikaelson was home alone when the house burned."_

This made Caroline sit up straight in her bed and look around. When her eyes fell on the form in the bed next to her, she lifted a hand to her head and rested it there. She had actually let herself think for a moment that Klaus had actually been in the fire. Not that it would have killed him, she knew, but somehow that had still bothered her.

"_The Sheriff has not been available for questioning this morning and a rumor that he might be missing was hinted at by one officer when asked about the Sheriff's absence in all of this."_

Caroline had a feeling she knew where Klaus went the night before now and turned to glare at him. The glare didn't last long as she watched him sleep. There was something so mesmerizing about how relaxed he looked laying there. It reminded her of the last time she had seen him asleep, only he had been in Tyler's body then.

Then guilt crept its way into her mind and she found herself more than bothered, but actually worried about her sanity. This was a bad time to be bringing up Tyler.

She tiptoed over to her bathroom and closed the door behind her, then locked it for good measure, not wanting Klaus to any ideas while she was in there. She jumped into the shower and turned it on so that the temperature was scalding hot. As the water ran down her back she could feel the skin wanting to peel, but healing too quickly to ever actually burn under the temperature. It was distracting though and she found herself relishing in the feeling.

What had she done? Since when was it okay to sleep with Klaus? What kind of state of mind had she been in the night before that had led her to that?

She felt the water start to run colder and she decided to shampoo before she forgot and spent her time just standing there unproductive.

When she got out, she wrapped her silk robe around her and dried off her hair. She knew she was going to have to face Klaus now, since she had forgotten to grab clothes from her closet. She prayed he was still asleep when she opened the door.

His smug features proved otherwise.

"Morning," he called from the bed. His arms were crossed above his head and he was barely covered by the sheets on Caroline's bed.

She tried not to stare as she walked to her closet.

With her back turned to him, she didn't see him move or even hear him as he came up behind her and placed his arms around her stomach. Her arms slowly came up and rested on his as she enjoyed the moment of being in his arms again, closing her eyes as she did.

He freed one of his arms and pushed the damp hair away from her back and placed a kiss on the back of her neck. "Don't tell me you are upset about last night." He whispered into her ear.

She shook her head, unable to verbally answer him.

"Good," his voice scratched with the word.

Right, this was how last night happened, she told herself. She got too close to him and her more animalistic side had taken over.

"I need to get dressed," Caroline said breathily.

"Do you?" Klaus' sarcastic response was accompanied with another kiss on her neck.

"We should really make sure people are okay?" She hadn't meant it to come out as a question or for it to come out so softly, but her voice was hard to control when she was like this.

"Should we?" Klaus asked and let his lips just linger on her skin, not even kissing her this time, just letting his lips be quiescent.

"Yes," Caroline said leaning into him, wanting him to keep kissing her and ignore what she was saying.

"All right, love." He said and moved away from her, detaching his arms to look for his pants.

Caroline's eyes shot open at the movement and she had to bury the groan she felt deep down and pull her attention back to her closet.

Oh who was she kidding? This wasn't just because he was near her and she was horny. That bastard had somehow gotten exactly what he wanted. He had gotten her to like him. It was ridiculous and stupid and dangerous, but damn it if it weren't true. She needed to stop lying to herself, because it was only leaving her feeling more foolish than she already was for letting him get to her. She had just been figuring that out last night when she got distracted by the Wolf's bane.

She was getting dressed, she reminded herself. She should be checking on her friends and her first stop would be Elena's, because who else could she relay to what just happened?

"Hey," she said turning on Klaus. She had been wearing only a bra and underwear as she picked out her green flowered cotton dress and pulled it over her head. It hadn't even occurred to her that he had been watching until she caught him with her sudden spin on her heel. She blushed and zipped up the back of the dress. "Uhm, what happened to your house?"

"Seems like it no longer stands," He said not seeming at all ashamed of being caught staring.

Caroline was sure he knew that she was asking more about the body that was found inside of it than the fact that it burned. She just looked at him until he answered.

"I figure they were looking for one of my siblings, why not have it seem like they got one?" Klaus said coming to stand near her. "Elijah made arrangements for three tickets to California with their names. They'll follow that trail and leave town."

She found herself thinking she should step backwards and not let him get his arms around her again, but her feet moved forward instead and she was greeted by a kiss to the forehead.

"They won't think you all stayed to avenge …you?" Caroline asked trying to keep her head.

"Not with most of their families being out West." Klaus said sounding like he had a firm hold over his plan.

"They'll think your siblings are going there for them." Caroline said understanding now how the plane tickets were a good idea. "But your siblings aren't leaving, are they?"

"They might," Klaus said, not seeming as troubled at this as Caroline thought he would be. Wasn't he punishing Rebekah by keeping her here? Had he already let it go? Unless, she had been right to think that Rebekah's punishment was keeping tabs on her. Then, she wouldn't really be needed now, would she? Not with her being in his arms.

"Okay, subject change." Caroline said and pulled herself from Klaus. She was actually glad she was able to. "About last night…"

Caroline trailed off, what was she going to say? It was a onetime thing? She was already hoping it wasn't. She wanted to talk about this; they needed to talk about this. She had no idea what to do and she was sure she felt that way mostly because she didn't know how Klaus felt about it.

Did he enjoy it? Yeah, she could tell he had, but what had it meant to him, because for her it meant more than she was willing to admit. Her own thoughts were haunting her and her only way of knowing was just asking him.

"What are we doing?" It was official, she was terrible with words. She couldn't ever get out what she wanted to say or to ask correctly.

Klaus turned to pull on his shirt, unable to button it seeing as it didn't have any buttons left. His vest was in his right hand.

"What are you really asking, Caroline?" Klaus said as he faced her again.

"This isn't just sex, right?" She said quickly and found herself looking down. Klaus walked over to her and lifted her chin with his free hand.

"I've been chasing you for months, and you think that was just for last night?" Klaus said searching her eyes. "If you can't see how I feel-"

"I can't," Caroline cut in. "I am the worst person at being able to see what people feel."

Caroline tried to pull from him, but he held her more firm and kissed her lips.

"I'm in love with you Caroline and I'll be around until you can say it back." Klaus said letting go of her and giving her time to process what he had just said.

Caroline wasn't expecting that. She had thought he would say something about fancying again or saying that he meant to make more of his feelings or something old and wordy like he normally did, she was not expecting him to straight out tell her that he loved her. It made it all real. It made everything she thought about him since New York all real. Her brain was not ready to process that. She wasn't ready to have another person in love with her.

Klaus seemed to be making his way to leave and Caroline quietly let out.

"What if I can't say it back?"

He came to a stop in the doorway to her room and took a moment. He fidgeted with his vest and looked down at the ground, then up to the ceiling, and then turned back to look at her.

"You will, eventually." Klaus said with a confidence that was more akin to his normal self, and walked out of the house.

Well, that was annoying, even if it had answered her question.

She finished getting ready and then stepped out of her house and was given a surprise by seeing her car in her driveway. She walked back into the house and saw the keys were sitting on the dresser in her room. She tried not to over think the action, but it left her smiling like a fool as she got in her car and made her way to Elena's house. The whole way his words played in her mind.

She sent Matt and Bonnie a quick text saying that they should all meet up at one point today for lunch, but she wanted Elena alone first so she could tell her about her night. Elena was going to be happy about it, and she knew it. She just hoped that she could also help make sense of what she was doing, because right now Caroline felt like she was being stupid and irrational.

This wasn't keeping her from being happy about it though.

Jeremy answered the door again at Elena's house and just waved before heading back to the kitchen where Caroline could smell something cooking. Caroline made a note that she needed to really feed before heading up the steps to Elena's room.

"Elena, are you asleep still?" Caroline could hear light movement in Elena's room and opened up the door. "I need to talk, I slept with Klaus-"

Caroline stopped mid-sentence when she opened the door and saw Damon on Elena's bed. She started to cover her eyes thinking she had walked in on something she shouldn't have when she realized that her eyes had seen him dressed and alone lying on the bed.

"What are you doing in Elena's room?" Caroline chided as she swung the door wider and stepped into the room, her arms crossed over her chest.

Damon smirked at her and sat up. "Klaus?" He put on a face of shock to mock her. "Barbie, I thought you had better standards than to sleep with such evil."

"I slept with you, didn't I?" Caroline shot back.

"Well, I clearly ruined you of your sanity." Damon said and stood from the bed, fixing his button-down black shirt as he did. "I always thought he had mommy issues, but this is going a bit far."

"What?" Caroline shook her head, not sure of what Damon meant.

"The blonde hair is one thing, but now that I've made the connection, you do look like her." Damon said still be cryptic and weird. "It's around the eyes. Of course, your eyes are lighter."

"Are you comparing me to Esther?" Caroline said more freaked out than she had been about sleeping with him before.

"It fits the psycho mommy dearest thing perfectly." Damon said and played with something on Elena's desk. There was no point in speculating what Damon was only making up to irk her.

Caroline looked like she was going to ring his neck, but pulled back her anger and redirected it with her words.

"Seeing as you and Stefan are fighting over the same girl does that mean your mother had long dark hair like Elena's?" Caroline asked spitefully and pulled her arms tighter around her.

"What about my hair?" Elena said, walking into the room and swatting at what Damon was holding, then returning it to where it had been picked up.

Stefan stood in the doorway and leaned on its frame.

"Caroline," He said with a friendly tone when she caught his eye and she smiled back at him.

"Back from the feasting already? Were the chipmunks strong fighters or did Elena sing them into submission like a Disney princess?" Damon's demeanor seemed to change almost instantly as he faced his brother. He was still joking, but he was no longer as stiff as he had been while waiting for Elena and Stefan to return.

"It was fine, Damon." Elena said and rolled her eyes. "Now you two need to leave, because Caroline and I have a date."

"More competition, Brother," Damon said and clapped Stefan on the shoulder. "We don't have a chance against Barbie."

"It's a good thing she owes me one then." Stefan smirked back with his sarcastic comment and pulled his brother down the hall.

"Well, good news is she's got a thing on the side-"

"Damon!" Caroline cut Damon off just as he spilled the beans to Stefan. At this rate the whole town was going to know within the hour all because she had accidently let it slipped to Damon Salvatore. Great.

"What did he mean?" Elena asked, but Caroline could tell her ears were fixed on Damon's voice down stairs telling Stefan her news. "Caroline, you didn't?"

"Why are you so surprised? You were practically pushing me on him five months ago." Caroline said and flopped down on Elena's bed.

"You were always so against him though. I thought…" Elena trailed off and Caroline gave her a look, waiting for her to finish.

After a few minutes went by Caroline finally raised her eyebrows at her friend, "what?"

"I just assumed you were staying with him for Tyler's sake, playing along, not actually emotionally involved beyond that. Even when I accused you of being in love with him, you denied it, saying you needed more. I thought you meant that he didn't stand a chance. Even last night you were all moody when he was around." Elena fully explained and it confused Caroline completely. That wasn't the feeling she had gotten from Elena at all the last couple of months, and now she was shocked?

"Well, that's not the full story either." Caroline slipped into a brief explanation of her morning and wasn't surprised that Elena went gushy suddenly.

"Aww, so it wasn't just sex?" Elena said suddenly changing her tune again. Caroline was getting frustrated. What was up with Elena?

"Yeah, I guess he is really committed to this, me, you know what I mean." Caroline was picking at Elena's bedspread and not looking her friend in the eye as she explained this. "The funny thing about it is I don't want him to stop or go away. I actually like the idea of him attempting to make this work. I just feel like..."

Elena waited for Caroline to finish.

"I just feel like he's changing me." Caroline took a long breath and met Elena's eye. "He should be the one to change, to not be the reckless and irrational hybrid that he is, but he is exactly the same. The only thing has changed with him is that he is no longer running from his family and for some reason is in love with me." Caroline lied back on Elena's bed and stared up at the ceiling. "I give him a shot and he tells me he loves me. What am I suppose to do now? I don't even think I can trust him."

Caroline and Elena went silent for a few minutes and Caroline heard her phone buzz with a text message, then another two.

"You actually like him, though, don't you?" Elena asked lightly.

Caroline stopped and focused on her answer. She didn't feel like lying to herself anymore, so why lie to Elena?

"Yeah, I do. I guess I just have to set some ground rules, if I'm really going to go through with this." Caroline said and slowly got up from the bed.

"Yes, that's the perfect idea. Tell him what he'll have to do to even stand a chance with you. You haven't exactly told him what you want, so he has just been doing whatever he feels like. You need to-" Elena paused and then gave Caroline an apologetic look. "Sorry, I just realized how much that advice would have helped several months ago for me. Now look where I am."

Caroline shrugged at her friend and grabbed her phone out of her bag. She had three texts, two from Matt and one from Klaus. When had she gotten his number again? He must have done that when she was asleep.

Matt's text was just about him running late and that he would meet them at the Grill. Klaus's text was a little more interesting.

"Can we meet tonight? For dinner?"

Caroline wasn't sure what to say to that. A date, now he wanted a date? She had to consider it. A date would be a good opportunity to state her rules for their relationship, if that was the right word. She guessed it was. What else was she suppose to call it?

"Yes," she replied back to him via text and felt a shiver of excitement go through her.

When her eyes fell on Elena again she smiled, coming back down to reality.

"So, why was Damon waiting in your room?" Caroline wondered out loud as they got ready to go out.

"I have no idea. I thought he followed you in." Elena said and let out a long sigh. "He's getting really clingy."

"Two guys fighting over you, I know your pain." Caroline said and linked arms with her friend.

"We are quite the pair of crazy." Elena said and they both smiled, but neither laughed.

-x-

Caroline pulled into her driveway around seven and had to make a double-take. Her mother's car wasn't in the drive, but there seemed to be lights on inside her house. She frowned at that, her mother wasn't the type to leave things on after she left.

Caroline slowly walked to her front door. When she walked inside she saw that the light she had seen from outside was coming from her dining room and was glowing. They were candles and she could smell the wax melting. She closed the front door and made her way to the light source only to find an elegant set of dishes full of wonderful looking food waiting for her and Klaus standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"I thought you might like a nice meal at home." His voice floated through the air to her as she looked on in awe. "Seeing as my dining room is currently a pile of ash."

"Did you cook?" Caroline asked; her eyes not leaving the cooked salmon and rice that was set where she normally sat at dinner parties.

"Not exactly," Klaus said, moving her chair back for her and guiding her to her spot.

She followed without hesitation.

"Oh good, so it's not poison then." Caroline tried to joke, but found herself raising her fork and cutting off a piece of the Salmon.

Klaus took the chair to her left at the head of the table and started in on his plate as well. The two sat in silence as they ate. At first Caroline was ravenous. She ate each bite with an appreciative noise and then found herself half way through the salmon in no time. She slowed herself down and looked over at Klaus. He was eating and watching her at the same time.

"Sorry," she apologized for her rudeness. "It's just so good."

"I'm glad." Klaus said and smiled with a sloppy grin.

As Caroline's plate became lighter, she found herself slowly remembering about her plan to list the things they needed to have a discussion about and wanted to get started on the conversation right away.

"So, we're really doing this then?" She asked and put her fork down. "Seeing each other, I mean."

"It's my intention." Klaus said and put his fork down as well, taking a sip of the wine in front of him. Caroline copied the movement and then braced herself for a long talk.

"Well, we need some rules then." Caroline said and laid her hands flat on the table in front of her. "I want to make this clear that I'm not going to take this lightly. I'm all in, if you are."

"Is that one of the rules, love?" Klaus leaned back in his chair as he said this. "Because that isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned, that's encouragement."

"No," She blushed as she looked down at her lap, then back up at him again. "But I thought I should at least put that out there. I wanted you to know where I stand."

He motioned for her to go on as he nodded.

"Well, first, and this is probably the biggest thing," she hesitated. "I want you to inform me before you decide to kill anyone else."

"In this town?" Klaus asked for clarification.

"Anywhere, I want to be more than just sitting in my room wondering what you are up to and what you are doing when I'm not around you. I'm not saying you have to report every detail of your life to me, but…" Caroline lost her train of thought on that. She hadn't thought this through long enough. She should have spent more time on this today then just hanging out with her friends and trying to have a regular Sunday since Prom failed terribly. She couldn't believe that had been just last night. Had the town really cleared out that quickly?

"Are you going to argue with who I decide to kill?" Klaus' question had him leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, but also bringing Caroline back to her purpose.

"I might, that's kind of the point. I want a say in what you are doing. I want us to be equal. I want my opinion to count, even if it doesn't seem right to you." Caroline kept her hands flat on the table, but she could feel herself put weight into them with her words.

Klaus seemed to think on this for a moment. He held her gaze, but his eyes showed how far away his thoughts were. She wondered what he could be making of this rule.

"So, what you want is my acknowledgement of your opinion on matters involving who lives and dies by my hand."

Klaus reworded her term so efficiently that Caroline simply nodded.

"Fine," Klaus said then. "Although I can't imagine you're upset with the fact that the new Sheriff was killed."

"Ha, so that was you." Caroline felt smug that she hadn't even needed to ask him in order to figure out what he did. Klaus didn't acknowledge it though and just took another sip of his wine.

When Caroline realized she was being distracted she quickly returned to her list.

"Next, I want you to stop feeding off live blood." Caroline could tell the second the term was in the air that he was going to fight her on this.

"Since I clearly won't be killing them without you knowing, how can feeding directly from someone matter?" Klaus asked haughtily. He was looking like a stubborn child as he defended himself. "I can feed without killing, you know."

"Although I'm sure you have a better control of your thirst with all the years of practice, I still don't want you to do it. I won't either." Caroline felt like she needed to make that point as if it made the difference in her argument.

"I can't make that promise." Klaus said with a low growl.

"Fine," Caroline said and stood up from the table. "Then we are done here."

Klaus' eyes went wide.

"That easily?" He seemed to go crazy with realization of what her words meant. "You'd throw out any chance I have with you over _that_?"

"I'm not just laying out these rules for conversational value. I mean them." She leaned down toward him then. "I want to be able to trust you and this is how I can, equal standing and no drinking from fresh sources. It's not like I'm asking you to try the forest animal way."

Klaus looked like he was going to burst. He stood up from the table and paced the length of the room, then caught Caroline's eye and paced again.

"Is it really that much trouble?" Caroline asked, confused. Had she missed something in all this? She hadn't thought her little list was anything that he would be so hard set against. She thought he was getting off easy.

Klaus came to a stop with his back to her. His shoulders seemed to sag as if he was defeated. "I want one exception."

Caroline stepped closer to him, her mind unable to see an exception for the rule made her curious to hear it. "Which is?"

"Your blood."

The words were so simple. They went in one ear and then out the other, but Caroline still didn't understand them.

"What?" She found herself questioning it.

"Your blood, for several reasons, but mostly since any time I have to save you from a werewolf bite you get to drink from me, so I want to be able to drink from you if I need to." Klaus' exception was surprising, but also made sense to Caroline.

"Um, all right. Deal, I guess." She couldn't imagine it ever being a problem that he would need her blood, but she figured it couldn't hurt either. It's not like he would do it to hurt her.

"Is there anymore of these?" Klaus asked then and sat back down in his chair.

Caroline could see that he was still upset with this rule and that she was kind of ruining dinner, so she tried to rectify it at least a little by going over to him and taking a seat in his lap. Her arms linked around his neck and he immediately took her in his arms without wavering.

"Well, really just one more." She said, cutting a few minor things from her list. She could always bring them up later if she needed to. "We cannot tell my mother."

"I'm not so great with parental figures, anyway." He said and kissed her lips.

She returned the kiss and smiled as they came apart. "Then we might want to find someplace else to stay tonight."

"That can be arranged." Klaus said, leaning to the side and kissing her lightly under the chin.

Caroline let him leave a trail of kisses along her neck as she thought about her rules. She had gotten him to agree to them for now, but what exactly could she do if he didn't follow them? Just dumping him on the spot would get old or difficult after a while and she would have to start becoming more creative with ways to keep him in check.

What would really get to her after all this would be his inability to see why she wanted these rules in place. She didn't just want to be along for the ride, she wanted to be a part of it. She needed to know he understood that she wasn't just going to let him be the same killer she had originally met and he needed to willing change for her as much as she was for him. She wanted this to work.

She wanted his love.


	13. A Specter

Holy crap! Its been a month. How did that happen? Where did time go? My birthday, meeting Kat Graham, and getting sick kept me from being able to even look at a computer and now I'm way behind on my story! I'm so sorry! There's only two or three chapters left so at least you won't have to go on too long waiting for this thing to end! I'm so sorry about the wait! You've all been so patient too. Here's a little teaser chapter for you all!

* * *

The Wayward Future

Chapter 13: A Specter

She hadn't remembered looking around much the night before as she dragged Klaus into the room, her lips never leaving his skin long enough to even note more than where the couch was and somehow she had ended up on the bed after anyway. They had switched hotels three times now and Caroline was getting a bit annoyed at the movement. At least he'd said this was the last time they moved until graduation.

The pillows she was conformed to were taupe and had lace edges. Her body was wrapped in a dark red sheet and the top comforter was striped with both colors and kicked to the far end of the bed. She could see where Klaus had been laying before but no longer was there. She shouldn't have been so surprised to wake up in the hotel room with several scraps of paper taking up the space where Klaus had slept, but she was none-the-less. He was in the shower at the moment and had abandoned several of the drawings he had been doodling. Most of them had been of her. One or two was of her sleeping, one was of her in her prom dress, but it was the one furthest from her that drew her attention. It was a set of hands wrapped around one another, she didn't think they were their hands, but she couldn't be a hundred percent that they weren't. She didn't see her daylight ring or any other identifying factor, just one set of masculine hands and one feminine.

She set the picture aside and started to search the room for her clothes so she could dress, forgetting momentarily that she had brought a suitcase to Klaus' "new place". She wanted to shower, but she figured she wouldn't have time before she needed to get to school. She really couldn't afford skipping any more of it if she was going to graduate and her new history teacher wasn't exactly so charmed by her record so far.

Klaus wasn't very helpful either. Every time she brought up missing something from school he would just go on about how formal education was essentially a joke, but it wasn't the education she was going for anymore. It was the sense of normalcy that she had felt was slowly losing its way around her. She could go to school and pretend everything was the same as it had been a year ago. Of course, the exceptions to that were the few people who were missing from school every day, but she tried to not dwell on that as she walked the halls. Instead, she thought about Klaus.

She tip-toed around the couch to find her bra had somehow landed on a lamp the night before. As she grabbed it she really started to feel the grime of not having showered and looked to the door where Klaus was and then to the clock on the bed side table. If he hurried she might have time to get clean and dressed.

Then a dirtier thought came to her. If she joined him, then she could possibly have more time than she needed. She had walked over to the door and was about to open it when her phone rang from her bag, which was still sitting on top of her suitcase. She could just make out Stefan's name from the distance. She panicked and went to grab her phone. Since when was Stefan calling her? This was random even for her. She couldn't remember the last time he had called her directly.

"Hello?" she answered a little disappointed. She heard Klaus shut off the water as she answered and was frustrated she missed out.

She grabbed at her bag and pulled out a black skirt. She needed to be more than in her underwear in case she needed to run out the door.

"Caroline, you all right?" Stefan's voice sounded forced. She could practically hear the serious look he was wearing.

"I'm fine, Stefan. What's wrong?" Caroline tried to keep her mind from jumping to conclusions, but with their track record anything could be happening in town right now and a phone call from Stefan was not a good sign. Normally.

"Nothing, sorry." He took a deep breath. "I was actually calling about going hunting with me later. I've been taking Elena every time, but she is busy and I'm kind of use to taking someone along now and was just wondering…"

Caroline rolled her eyes. Stefan was being awkward and she knew why. He wanted to talk to her, alone. She was not surprised to hear it either. She secretly wondered when everyone would start getting on her case about being with Klaus since it most certainly wasn't a secret anymore. Thank you, Damon. Who would worry more than Stefan about it? Especially since Stefan had been Klaus' ward not too long ago.

"Yeah Stefan, sounds great. After classes?" She said trying to not make a big point of what he was implying. With Klaus just in the next room he was more than likely listening and who knew if he was already making the same connections she was.

He probably was. That was one problem with being with Klaus. He never stopped. He always jumped to conclusions. He was too use to his life of running. She couldn't seem to get him to just trust what was going on was genuine and slow down. She found herself reassuring him several times that even she was willingly with him and not some product of a deeper plan. She felt weird having to restore confidence in him, but couldn't really blame him for that either. She had been used as a distraction for him before and probably still would be if things were different. She couldn't figure out a way to solidify the idea that she was with him because she wanted to be and not because she was a tool to some strategy against him. He would just have to trust her and that's what she kept telling him.

The worse part about his insecurities was how he never really voiced them. Caroline would always just get the feeling from him that he was holding back and hiding things. The only thing he had ever really told her was that he loved her and that had been something she wasn't ready for. Now she was on better guard for expressions that never came. It was a little ridiculous, but she had expected as much from him. When had he ever really been able to voice what had been troubling him? From his stories she could tell no one had ever listened before and this had caused him to internalize a lot. She was just going to have to keep working with him to get him to speak his mind.

She wondered if he was this way with his siblings as well.

"I'll see you then." Caroline heard Stefan's answer and ended the call. She turned just in time to see Klaus step out of the bathroom in only a towel.

"Was that Stefan?" he asked casually. He looked amused, but his eyes held the blackness of something else.

Yep, he had heard every word and was already putting up the barricade around him.

"It was. He seems to think I'm not on the bunny diet anymore and wants me to join him today." Caroline tried to sound like this was the only logical reason Stefan would want to hunt with her today, but she could tell Klaus wasn't buying it. She tried to joke about it. "He must think you are a bad influence."

"Sounds more like he wants to see if you've been compelled?" The lack of strain in his words alerted Caroline more than the actual words themselves. He was taking this too easily.

"Or we are meeting up to trade secrets and tactics on how to take you down."

Klaus gave her a look that displayed his dislike of her taunting.

"I could tell him about how I managed to weaken you in that elevator two days ago." Caroline said with a smirk from ear to ear and her hands going to the hem of the towel at his waist.

"Hm, I don't quite recall that one. You might have to show me again." Klaus' words came out heated and his eyes flared at the memory of what had happened, though he claimed to not remember. Caroline was having a problem with wanting to take that request and knowing she needed to get to school soon.

"Later," she sighed and leaned in to kiss his lips lightly.

He pouted. "You don't have to be there for a half an hour!"

"And I'll have to spend most of that driving over to the school since you chose the most remote hotel possible." Caroline explained and pulled back from him.

"You don't have to go." He tried again, pulling her close.

"Don't start that up. You know I'll just walk out anyway." Caroline chided him and pulled a jacket out of her bag to throw over the plain white shirt she had been putting on while talking to Stefan. "I have barely a month and then we can go anywhere or hibernate for as long as we want to, but I have to go."

She kissed him one more time, much longer than the first one.

-x-

School was uncharacteristically quick today and Caroline was surprised as she left Bonnie's and Rebekah's side to find Stefan waiting for her by her car. He was wearing his sunglasses and his hands were in his pockets. He hadn't gone to any of his classes today and she had thought maybe he was going to cancel, but seeing him there had killed that thought.

"Are we driving?" It wasn't normally the case since people had a tendency to recognize her car and being out in the woods too often would look weird to the people in the town who knew her. Usually she walked so she didn't have to take main roads.

"Probably not the best of ideas," Stefan shrugged. "Was Elena in school today?"

"No, she wasn't." Caroline said and then wished she hadn't. Stefan looked run over by the news. She tried to change subjects. "So, what brought on this trip, really?"

She and Stefan had started walking toward the woods as they spoke. Caroline had figured this would be more of an easy-going trip. Stefan had always been effortless for her to get along with and she really appreciated his friendship. It had saved her several times now.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." Stefan dropped his somber mood for a more serious one. "I can't say that I don't trust your decisions and that you don't know what you've gotten yourself into, but seeing you this week and how you had acted when I saw you at Prom, you'd think something drastic had changed and with Klaus that's usually a sign of something bad."

Caroline made an effort not to roll her eyes in front of Stefan. He was being, well, Stefan. She couldn't expect anything else from him.

"He's not compelling me." Caroline commented ready for this conversation. "I don't know how to explain it, but I would know if he was. He wouldn't be as…"

She faltered with her words.

"He wouldn't be as unsure as he is." Caroline finished looking down at the ground. Now she did feel like she was giving away a part of Klaus. She knew a side he didn't show normally, but she could trust Stefan. Couldn't she?

"Unsure?" Stefan asked, seeming confused.

Caroline scrunched up her mouth like she was trying to keep the words in, but she found she needed to tell this to someone. Her last boy-talk buddy had wigged out on her recently and right in the middle of the hallway at school. Elena was not exactly her go to person anymore. She was starting to be more bi-polar about things. She was happy for her at first, but then upset with her for keeping up with it. Like Elena was one to judge her. It was so middle school that Caroline couldn't believe it happened and had just walked out on Elena. The girl couldn't seem to make up her mind on anything anymore.

"He's different with me now. Well, not different. He hasn't changed. He's still Klaus, but then he will give me this look that just betrays what he's thinking and I can tell he just wants to be told that I'm not going anywhere and I don't know how to tell him that. I don't even know if I'll be around forever and if he was compelling me he wouldn't need to fret about that, right? He would know. So yes, I know I'm not being compelled." Caroline looked to Stefan as she finished and saw him staring at her intently. "What?"

"Nothing," Stefan shook his head as he spoke and both of them seemed to slow their pace at this. "You know what he is Caroline. You've seen what he can do. I just don't want to see you on the wrong side of things. You've got this town and this life now, but what about when this goes away? When everything grows different and you find yourself in another place, is Klaus who you want to be with when you have nothing else?"

Caroline took in Stefan's words and imagined the world a year from now and then five years from now. Was Klaus going to be the one standing next to her in a hundred years? The possibility of it all seemed too unreal, but that was her life now as a vampire. She was going to continue while all else faded. All else, except Klaus and a few of her friends, would be gone.

Her mind spent most of their hunting time on this thought as they remained quiet to not scare off their game. She was given quite a bit of time to really consider what it would be like to just have Klaus and nothing else. Her mind knew already what it wanted. She already knew her answer. She could see herself with only Klaus. She could see it quite clearly. It should have scared the hell out of her, but it didn't. It felt comfortable. It was like the first time she tried a roller coaster. It had terrified her as she waited in line and freaked her out when she sat down, but then the ride was fun and she enjoyed herself so much she wanted to do it again. Only this rollercoaster wasn't going to end and she could enjoy it forever.

"Hey Stefan, promise me something." Caroline said as she was wiping at her mouth. Stefan was standing near a ridge that dropped off into the lake below and looking out over it when she had broken through his thoughts.

He turned to her to show he had heard her.

"Even if it's been a year or hundred years, promise you'll keep in touch with me." Caroline said feeling a little insecure. Stefan had made her feel a lot better about herself and what she was feeling for Klaus. Not just letting her accept his love, but to really consider it, and Stefan had done it with so few words.

They kept to the woods for a little longer, neither wanting to head back to town too quickly and Caroline had explained her "conditions" to Stefan that Klaus had to keep up with. Although she pointedly didn't add the part of the agreement that involved her blood and didn't plan on letting Stefan in on that. She had a feeling that was something intimate, even if she didn't know why.

"And he's keeping to these conditions?" Stefan asked, clearly surprised by the terms.

"Yes, well, mostly." Caroline smiled slightly. "I caught him feeding off someone the very next day, but he has been good about it since then and he didn't kill him. So there is some hope of transition."

Stefan laughed. "I'm sorry. It's just with all I've had to endure with him it's entertaining to think that he has limits."

"Well, it's not like he hasn't shown that he has them before. Remember at the prom? He could've easily killed every wolf that came at us, but he didn't. He let Bonnie knock them out." Caroline started to think hard on that. He hadn't been under the conditions then and he had been… tame. Yet, he killed the wolf that tried to attack her mother just after. That seemed odd, didn't it?

"So, Klaus has been whipped." Stefan said, and they both smiled at the choice of words.

"I'm not really sure it's a good thing though." Caroline said pulling back from her happy tone and letting some of her hidden thoughts surface with Stefan. "He's not exactly safe."

Stefan seemed to take her words to mean he was cruel to her, but Caroline shook off the meaning before Stefan could ask.

"I mean safe from others. He is still hunted, we are hunted. He isn't always going to be able to keep his words on these conditions and I know that he'll protect himself before he keeps his word. Or at least I hope he would." Caroline let out a sigh. "I almost feel like amending the conditions or just getting rid of them all together and letting him figure out what I meant."

"It sounds more like you want him to do these things without you having to tell him to." Stefan spoke clearly. "You want him to be considerate."

Caroline couldn't help, but agree.

"He doesn't seem to understand why I'm making him compromise, because I've had to compromise and I just want to be fair." Caroline swung her arms around frustrated.

"So tell him." Stefan said simply.

Caroline snorted. "But, you see, that would make sense."

They came to the edge of the woods and were both making their way towards Caroline's car at the school. She had spent enough time thinking about Klaus that now she wanted to see him. As she pulled out her keys, she noticed Stefan becoming slightly fidget-y as he walked. She stopped and turned on him to see what he wanted to say.

He looked up surprised at her recognition to his anxiety and then relaxed his shoulders.

"I have a very insecure, neurotic question to ask you." Stefan said as he looked toward the parking lot gravel.

"You've come to the right person." Caroline replied and smiled.

"Do you think Elena will choose Damon?" Stefan was looking like it had killed him to ask and Caroline was completely affronted by the question. She was not expecting the normally composed friend of hers to ask something so… high school. Was everyone acting naïve this week?

"Elena feels for Damon. She may even love him." Caroline didn't let Stefan's droopy look faze her as she continued. "But as far as I am concerned she needs you more. You are her stable force, the thing she can always come back to and be sure it's there."

"Thanks," Stefan said looking like the words hadn't lifted him anymore than he had been before. He was wearing his worried-Stefan face and Caroline knew that her words weren't what he wanted, he wanted Elena's and he was just torturing himself by asking her.

Caroline turned back to her car to get in when Stefan called to her again. She turned to him.

"Can we make this a routine? Once a week we go hunting together, keep up with what's going on in our lives." Stefan seemed pumped by this idea and Caroline was finding she wasn't against it either.

"Yeah, Stefan. We should do that."

She waved him off as she pulled out of the school parking lot and made her way toward the hotel outside of town. The one Klaus was currently staying in while he played dead. So far no one seemed the wiser of his death with the exception of the siblings and those who knew her relationship status.

The town hadn't quieted down since prom. People were still worried that the pranksters would attack again, and a wild animal report that night had been called in from several places that couldn't be denied by the town. No one was out at night anymore. It was like waiting for the fear to die down and for people to start going out again. She hoped by graduation it would return to normal. She didn't like being cooped up at night, even if she didn't mind the company she now had.

-x-

Caroline was snuggled up next to Klaus, her head using his arm as her pillow as she listened to him tell another story about his youth. She had asked him about his mother from pure curiosity and he had started up almost immediately talking about the woman that just some months ago was terrorizing her friends and plotting to end the entirety of the vampire race.

The story he told painted a completely different picture of his mother as someone who had deeply cared for her children equally and had sought to keep them all safe. Before she knew it, Caroline was being told the story of how the vampires had come to be and she was surprised at the thought that what she was now was only a cause of a spell that had been implemented over a thousand years ago. He even explained how Kol had been the first to discover they could create more of them from giving them their blood before death.

It was relaxing for Caroline to have moments like this, especially ones that didn't feel like they were uncomfortable for either to be a part of. Klaus was just talking, not holding anything back and keeping her content.

"Was there anyone else?" Caroline wondered suddenly as she heard the story of how Finn had found Sage. "For you, I mean, was there anyone other than Tatia?"

She had wondered this several times since hearing that story of the original Doppelganger and how he had been at odds with Elijah because of her.

"Most of my past is a blur of rage. I wasn't ever looking for anything." Klaus seemed to avoid the answer and Caroline picked up on this.

"So there_ was_ someone else." She concluded and looked up at him. His face was hard and looking down at her like he couldn't decide what the right answer was.

"I've not been a saint in that department, but I didn't find myself held back by anyone or anything. I was still running from my father. I had no time for delusional long standing things. Elijah and I shared a common mindset on that." He looked away then to the window and then made his way back to her eyes. "I think that you are the hardest thing I've ever tried to keep."

Caroline didn't say anything at first. She was toying with the idea of making a joke, but couldn't find herself making the words come out. This was another moment of revelation from him and she had nearly pushed it aside.

"I'm glad you didn't give up." She said and found herself idly stroking his other arm with her fingertips.

He took her hand in his and crossed their fingers before resting their hands on his chest. "I knew it'd be worth it."

"Well, now I feel like I didn't try hard enough to stay away." Caroline said looking at their entwined hands.

Klaus looked intrigued. "Are you suggesting running out on me right now?" He said and leaned down to kiss her hand. "I think you might want some clothes first."

"I think your hand has mine anchored here."

"I guess I am prone to forcing people's hands at every turn." Klaus was using her words against her and the memory of her yelling at him the day he drove her home made her blush deeply. He hadn't even been doing anything wrong, if you didn't count the fact that he was in Tyler's body at the time, and she had jumped on his case.

The smug look on Klaus' face when she looked up at him made her squirm under his gaze.

"Ha ha." She mumbled out a little late and wished she didn't have to remember the way in which Klaus had gotten to her. Her conscious would never fully forgive him, but that didn't mean she had to have a conscious. Wasn't one of the great things about being a vampire that she could cut ties with parts of her humanity or really her humanity all together if she wanted? This was a perfect time to execute that ability and she quickly let it go. It didn't go without the thought that this was another thing he had changed about her. Her humanity was wavering, like she didn't already know that.

Klaus seemed to recognize her uneasiness and pulled her in closer to him as he turned her on her side.

"What's wrong?" He asked her straight forward and Caroline wished she could make something up instead of saying what she had meant to.

"It's just," she averted her eyes to his chest. "I keep thinking about what this is doing to me. What you are doing to me and I can't help but wonder…"

She drifted from her words again. She had such a tendency to lose her words when she didn't know how they'd be received and she wondered how much of that he noticed.

"Is it good for you?" Klaus finished her sentence with his own wonder.

"No," Caroline frowned. Is that what he thought? That he wasn't good for her? Now he was taking that into consideration and not back when her life was first being flipped? "I was going to say 'I wonder where it's going, if we are being fair'. Do you really think after all this that you're not good for me?"

"I worry you'll think so." Klaus said honestly and Caroline felt herself soften.

"If you weren't good for me I'd know." She kissed his cheek then. "I'm changing, but change is good. If I didn't change you wouldn't be able to stand the person I am and I would never have known what it is like to be with you."

Klaus got quiet at this and looked away, but turned back as he said, "being fair about what?"

It took Caroline a second to understand what he had meant when she realized what she was trying to say before.

"I was just thinking of how much I have changed and it made me realize how much you hadn't." Caroline said staring at their hands once again.

"I'm not sure I follow." Klaus' eyes burned a hue of the blackness that Caroline knew to be a sign of his holding back something and she wished they would go back to the story telling part of the evening that hadn't been as awkward.

"I gave you rules and you have been following them as far as I know, but you didn't have to give me rules. I've just been going along with everything you've unknowingly needed me to do without showing any force. It makes me feel like I went from being the one completely against this to the only one who is in it at all." Caroline shook her head. "That didn't come out right."

Klaus sat up in the bed, pulling away from Caroline, putting a significant distance between them.

"Caroline," Klaus sounded bothered the way he said her name. "Do you want me, or are you with me just to satiate me?"

"I don't-" Caroline saw a flicker of a form in the hotel room, standing just to the right of the couch and was caught off guard. "Bonnie?"

What was Bonnie doing in the hotel room? How did she even know where it was? Then she noticed it wasn't Bonnie, not really, but a weird translucent image of Bonnie.

Caroline was weird-ed out and was about to yell obscenities at her until she noticed how Klaus was staring zombie-like at the form of Bonnie. His entire attention was aimed at the specter form. Caroline knew Bonnie was controlling him somehow, talking to him, and she knew it had something to do with the blood that she had gotten possession of when she returned Klaus to his own body. Why was she here now though? If she had still been under Bonnie's spell would she know? Did Bonnie still think she was and was talking to her too? Caroline had no way of knowing and could only watch as the two had a staring contest across the room.

Then Bonnie disappeared.

When Klaus got up and started to get dress, Caroline didn't hesitate. She got up and started looking for clothes too. If Klaus was going somewhere, she was going to follow along and make sure nothing happened.


	14. Blood

Hello again. So this was a very long wait for a majority of you. I hope this appeases some of you for a bit as the next chapter may take a week to get out. Mind you, I want this story finished now so I doubt it'll be much of a wait for the next chapter as I've already started it.

I just have to tell you how hard this story has been to write for me. I find myself half of the time wanting to throw the whole thing out and the other half of the time wondering how I ever came up with such a concept. When a lot of what I was writing was showing up in the 4th season, I started becoming really angry with myself for not already having this out there to be read. So here is the chapter that took me months to get out. I very much hope it keeps you entertained until the next installment. I know I was happy how it turned out.

* * *

_The Wayward Future_

_Chapter 14: Blood_

It seemed that Klaus was summoned by Bonnie out into the middle of nowhere. They'd been slowly walking for about ten minutes after having dressed and left the hotel. Technically, Caroline knew where she was, but she so rarely visited this area just outside of town that it gave her the creeps to have to walk through it, even more so with Klaus lost in a trance. She was following behind him; using him as a guide to where they were going since Caroline hadn't heard whatever mind spiel Bonnie had given back in the hotel room.

Caroline was trying to piece together what was going on, but as much as her mind wandered over the ideas she couldn't know if any of them were true. All she knew were the facts. Klaus and at least Damon, if no other vampire, were under Bonnie's spell and it had something to do with a blood connection. Didn't everything these days? Caroline clearly was safe from this connection, because she had been exposed to Bonnie's blood back those few months ago at the Salvatore's house. Also, the place that they were heading was somewhere near the old home were Bonnie's witch ancestors had all burned. This meant that whatever Bonnie was up to, she needed the power of her ancestor's to do it and Caroline didn't like that fact.

This felt like a trap, but for whom, Caroline wasn't sure. Bonnie couldn't kill Klaus without losing all of her friends and her own mother. She couldn't be that far gone that she would just throw away everyone's lives, could she? No, it wasn't logical and Caroline refused to believe Bonnie had lost her mind these last few months when she had been coping so well with everything that had changed in the town. Bonnie hadn't been acting weird at all really, considering what she went through. She had even accepted Rebekah into their friendship and had gone to prom with Jamie even after claiming to not want to be in harm's way anymore. Not to mention how she had stuck around to help everyone to get out of the Church that night. She was the most dependable of them all at this point and she had a super knack for saving the day when she was around.

Or maybe that was acting weird for Bonnie and Caroline just didn't see it before, because she herself had turned a leaf so quickly. Where Caroline had been genuine about accepting the Originals into her life despite their nature, especially Klaus', maybe Bonnie had been plotting away how she was going to use their new friendship as a means to an end. Did she not have him under her spell right now? Had he been that way at prom? That certainly explained why he hadn't killed the wolves that were attacking them, only holding them off until she could subdue them. In fact she was all about helping him that night.

What was that saying? 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'?

Caroline shook off the feeling of dread that had crept up on her as she once more considered the possibilities.

Her feet would have been tired and aching by now had she been human. Her kitten heels probably weren't the greatest idea to wear for whatever was going on, but considering she had them so close by from earlier activities it had been her only option following Klaus out of the hotel room.

She kept her eyes low as she followed him, noting that he had grabbed the pair of jeans she liked on him as he had gotten dressed before. In one week she had already found little things that she looked for about him. Those jeans had stood out among them for the way they showed off just enough as he moved. Had he been wearing those earlier? She hadn't even noticed then. She had so quickly taken advantage of him once she came through the door to make up for being away from him all day. Then they had settled into bed before being interrupted by Bonnie.

These thoughts only lead her back to the conversation she had been having with Klaus before Bonnie showed up about her confusion over what their relationship meant and where it was going, especially his last question.

"_Do you want me, or are you with me just to satiate me?"_

Of course, Caroline felt like she was with Klaus because she had feelings for him deep down. The feelings for him had driven her crazy in New York and had her turned into a mess once they came back to Mystic Falls. He was always on her mind as she tried to deal with the loss of Tyler. It didn't help that he was in Tyler's body. Even if he claimed to not want to be there, he had to admit it was extremely convenient for him to be in her boyfriend's body to get her attention. The only time she was sane was once he finally left and she had thought she moved on from her girly little crush on the big bad wolf, but once he came back it was like her feelings had never left. They had hidden themselves behind all the school work and planning for Prom she had put herself through. She didn't have any of that any more. Graduation was coming and school was just preparing for finals. It was all review. Something her mind had a tendency to overdo on any topic.

Especially like the one currently walking in front of her.

She needed to once and for all explain that this is what she wanted. No one was provoking her. Not even Klaus. She wanted to be with Klaus and so she was. Whatever that entailed for her she would face it head on and with the confidence and perseverance she had come to see as a trait she liked in herself.

"Klaus," She called out loud to the form in front of her. She was not even a little bit surprised when he did not respond or react to her. She just rolled her eyes and continued. "I don't know if you can hear me. Probably not, and that is also probably a good thing as this might sound like a ramble, but it needs to be said. Okay?"

She took a quick step to catch up to his pace and stare at his unnatural empty eyes that only seemed to look straight ahead.

"I just want you to know that I meant what I said when I said I was all in with us. I'm not doing this to keep you tamed or distracted as my friends plot behind your back. I don't even know what's going on here now or why Bonnie showed up in our hotel room. I wish I did so I could actually have your attention, but if I have to say this all again later then this is a good trial and error for me anyways." Caroline took a deep breath.

"Back to that morning in my bedroom when you said you loved me. I was shell-shocked. I had never thought that your infatuation went that far. I thought you were just 'looking for a good distraction' and I was top of the menu. I was okay with sleeping with you that night, because in my mind I half thought if I did you might leave me alone afterwards. Not to mention how much I wanted to sleep with you, but that's not the point. I was willing to hurt myself with the idea that sex was all you wanted. I was better off cashing in my chips now and getting only a little hurt than going all out in a relationship with you and being destroyed by it.

I've already lost way too many people and adding to the list didn't seem like a good plan to me at the time. I can't even describe to you how dazed I was by you saying that. I don't even think it really registered with me until I was suddenly making up rules for you and I know that's not fair. I don't think that we work if I'm limiting you and you are limiting me, because no matter how we look at it we are doing that too each other right now. We talk about everything else, but we never really discuss this. We just do what we know will appease the other person. I don't want to do that with you. I don't want to change who I've become and I don't want you to change just to make this work. If you really love me no matter how I act then I should be able to love you no matter who you are."

Caroline surprised herself then. She hadn't meant to say the last part, but it had felt right when she did. They'd only been together a week in actuality and she was already confessing love to him. She knew something had to be wrong with her. People just didn't do that. She seriously hoped he couldn't really hear her.

"I just wish you could say something right now."

Caroline turned to look at Klaus again, but he was still just as vacant as he was before. It wasn't until she heard a phone going off that she even realized how quiet everything around her had gotten. When she pulled the phone from Klaus's back pocket she noted Rebekah's name across the screen.

"Hello?"

"Where is my brother?" Rebekah's accent fell strongly on the last word emphasizing the anger in her voice.

"He is currently walking blindly into the night unaware of even a phone ringing in his pocket." Caroline said sarcastically, although she was sure that Rebekah probably had no idea why.

"Well, tell him that his lazy ass needs to hear what I have found." Rebekah yelled in Caroline's ear.

"What?" Caroline asked curiously.

"Is he listening?" the Original sister scoffed.

"Um, yes," Caroline lied.

"Somehow that Witch has figured out how to cure vampires. I ran into her mother just outside of town and she is not healing from her cuts as quickly as a baby vampire would. I'm bringing her back to Mystic Falls now. Hopefully she'll be awake by then." Caroline cringed at the thought of Bonnie's mom being tortured by Rebekah, but her mind barely registered this as she was enveloped by the idea that a vampire could become human again. That _she_ could become human again.

"Has she said how Bonnie did it?" Caroline found herself asking. "Becoming human again, I mean. Is there really a cure?"

"The Mommy Witch hasn't said a word other than to complain about her lack of powers to use on me. Longest hour drive ever; and she was in the trunk."

"I'll call you back." Caroline spoke robotically into the phone as her and Klaus finally came upon the old house Bonnie's ancestors haunted. This is where Klaus had led them. This is where Bonnie had told him to go and she had a slight feeling that the news about Bonnie's mother and Klaus's sudden zombie-act were connected.  
"Please tell me that we are not seriously going in there." Caroline said as she watched Klaus make his way toward the front doors of the house and step over the threshold without a single problem. Caroline looked to the sky in frustration and followed him in.

"I'm going to need more of your blood." Caroline heard Bonnie's voice come from behind a large bonfire that was sitting in the middle of the basement. It would have been a fire hazard had it not seemed like there was a spell keeping the place from burning down. It filled the room with an eerie glow that reminded Caroline of some of the scary movies she had seen growing up.

She was just about to ask Bonnie whose blood she meant when she saw Klaus willingly raise his hand to Bonnie and her friend cut open her boyfriends palm.

"That should be enough for all your connections." Bonnie spoke to Klaus directly and he nodded his head before standing off to her side.

Caroline was starting to panic. Was Bonnie going to do this right now? They were the only two vampires even there and she was just going to send a cure down through the line of all his creations without them realizing it? They'll all just wake up tomorrow as humans again and have to reform their lives knowing what they had done to survive this long? It seemed kind of odd and sadistic that she even considered being cured a bad thing, but it felt like it was happening all too fast.

"With your blood and all your siblings, I'll be able to put an end to all the immortals. Good thing they were all so close by these past few months or I would never have gotten these." Bonnie lifted two other vials into the air and poured them into the pile where Klaus's blood laid on the floor.

"You're curing us all?" Caroline mumbled just loud enough for Bonnie to hear.

"I know it sounds impossible, but so did vampires and witches at one point, right? Now look at us." Bonnie's eyes flicked over to Caroline's then back to the flame in front of her.

A crash came through the door and Rebekah threw herself at Bonnie. As quick as she came, she was held back by Klaus. He was barely struggling as he locked his arms around her, determination on his face.

"I see my mother gave you the directions to get here." Bonnie said easily and took her knife out. She cut Rebekah's arm and had Klaus lean her over the puddle the blood had created.

"Nik, let me go." Rebekah struggled in her brother arms. "You idiot, she's going to make you weak again. Why are you helping her?"

"He can't hear you." Bonnie was still just as calm when she said this. "He's only able to see me, listen to me, and do what I tell him too."

Bonnie's eyes gleamed with the power this knowledge gave her over Rebekah and any plan she might have to thwart her.

"You were my last piece. I trapped the Salvatore's; made sure Elena was pre-occupied with her brother so that she wouldn't be stopping by. Then there were your brothers. Well, Kol was easy enough to handle with his little crush on me. Klaus and Elijah had been under my control for months now, so, I just needed to have you spill some blood so that I could make sure none of you would ever be able to undo what I am about to do."

Caroline was off to the side, moving slowly closer to Bonnie as she spoke. Her mind had been filling with one idea. If Caroline had gotten that memory back simply by touching some of Bonnie's blood then maybe the same bit of blood would wake up Klaus. It was enough of a chance that Caroline was willing to take. She had no idea if a cure would even work and what if that killed Klaus? Who knew how the cure would affect the Original family or the Hybrid who created her line?

"Go lock Rebekah up." Bonnie waved her hand at Klaus, leaving Caroline and Bonnie alone. "And Caroline sneaking closer to me is not helping you any."

Caroline raised an eyebrow at being addressed be her friend in such a way.

"It is okay, Bonnie. I want this. I want the cure." Caroline changed tactics almost instantly and reached her hand out for the knife and took it before Bonnie could stop her. "Do you need my blood too?"

Caroline asked this of her friend as if she were innocent of any bad behavior and was merely trying to be her over helpful self when it came to making plans. It was a smooth transition for Caroline, but Caroline could tell her friend wasn't really buying it.

"No, I don't need yours, Caroline." Bonnie sighed and stuck her hand out for the knife.

Caroline acted quickly and cut Bonnie's fingers of her right hand. Bonnie pulled back, but Caroline was able to get some of Bonnie's blood on her hand before Bonnie had Klaus back in the room, throwing his arms around Caroline and holding her down. Caroline was hoping for this, but her hand with the blood on it was pinned to her hip and not anywhere near a part of Klaus that she could rub the blood on and break the little mind connection Bonnie had over him.

She glared over at Bonnie and then up to Klaus.

"So has he been under your control this whole time?" Caroline asked to distract Bonnie.

"As long as I've had his blood, funny how that is the one thing that makes all the difference in Witch craft." Bonnie eyed her friend and walked toward a bag that was hidden on the shelf in the room. It seemed to house something large and rectangular within its velvet cloth.

"Does that mean he doesn't really love me?" Caroline suddenly wondered out loud and had a half mind to believe that what she was considering might actually be true. That Bonnie might have been pulling his strings at every moment.

"That I can't be sure about, I controlled him at certain points, not every waking moment. People tend to get suspicious when they can't remember certain days and moments. I had to keep him thinking that he was still in control of himself. He was not told to love you. In fact, I would have told him to leave you alone had I really thought about it." Bonnie shrugged this off as if it was not important to her what love life her friend was having with the evil henchman of hers.

Caroline slackened in Klaus' grip and for a moment she could feel him loosen his hold on her. She used this moment to swipe her hand at his arm. She made contact right on his bicep. She stopped and stared at him, but he just brought her up to a more controllable position by forcing her to stand straight up with his arms wrapped tightly around her.

"My blood won't wake him like that, Caroline." Bonnie murmured casually as she pulled down a wooden box from the bag on the shelf. "I know how blood works."

"So do I." Caroline growled and attempted to escape Klaus' arms, but he only held on more firmly.

"Now will you stop talking, you are distracting me." With this sentence, Bonnie opened the lid to the box she had placed on the ground and was mumbling some spell under her breath as the object inside the box rose into the air. Caroline was surprised by the flower that floated before her. It was a natural silver shade like it was made of metal, but it seemed just as delicate and soft as a real flower might be.

With this object distracting her friend, Caroline folded her arm up to reach Klaus' face. He tightened at first, but when Caroline met his eye, he seemed to realize that the movement was not a threatening one to him, so he allowed her to touch his jaw. She was cautious and gentle as she pretended to try and stroke his cheek, but she slipped her finger lightly across his lips and saw as he couldn't refuse the sense of need Bonnie's blood caused him and licked his lips. With that his eyes widened and his grip faltered on Caroline before tightening once more. Caroline was hoping that the reason the blood hadn't worked before was because he needed to ingest Bonnie's blood to wake up and for a second she had thought it had worked until he was holding her tightly again.

"Caroline," she heard her name spoken so softly that she would have never heard it had she been right next to Klaus and equipped with vampire hearing. "Don't turn around. I want her to think you are still cornered."

"You're awake?" She asked suspicious of his sudden conversation with her.

"Enough to remember what you said as we walked here," he said ever so quietly. Caroline blushed. He had heard everything and now remembered it. She was screwed.

"Why are you still holding me? We need to stop her." Caroline tried ever so hard to not hiss this at him as she kept her face forward and her lips barely moving.

"Is that what you want, Love, to be human again, to live a normal life?" Klaus broke up his simple sentence to make its magnitude fully understood.

Caroline was silent for a moment. She had just committed to the idea of spending forever with what any sane person would consider an incredibly evil person and now she was given the option to back out of forever, to return to a normal human life, to have a family and friends who weren't in mortal danger for their whole existence. It was a life that screamed average and yet it seemed so temptingly easy to have once again. All she had to do was stand back and let it happen. No one she knew would have to die, everyone would just be human. Was it really possible?

"It sounds like a dream." Caroline found herself saying.

"It would mean that I would become human as well, but with one big difference. I won't become what you will. My wolf blood will still exist and I most certainly will not get a new start. I will be a wolf every month, uncontrollable and a danger to everyone." Klaus kept his words even, but that didn't make them anymore of a worry for Caroline.

Klaus would be a wolf, her life wouldn't be simple or easy with him, and if they had kids…

Their life wasn't possible this way, she had a better chance with him as a vampire knowing full well what he was and what he was capable of doing, but did that mean that was what she should choose? She couldn't be selfish when her friends were involved as well. They had just as much of a choice to be human as she did. She needed to decide for them too.

How the hell did she get stuck with this?

She took a long moment to reflect on her options, to weigh everything equally in her mind, and to consider her friends part in all of this. She felt the weight of the question crush her, leaving her to take the only step she could to make this right.

In one quick sentence she had her answer.

"Not like this." She shook her head and looked down. "She can't just turn us unwillingly. If they want it then she can help them, but not like this."

Caroline met Klaus' eyes and she noticed something painfully sad in his expression like he didn't want to hear this answer come from her lips. It was an expression that made her wonder what he thought of this young vampire he was just starting a relationship with and whom was so quickly made to consider the meaning of existence as the creature he had been for so long, but he seemed to quickly let this go as he lifted his eyes toward the fire.

"I need you to trust me." Klaus addressed Caroline even though he was no longer looking at her, but eyes aimed across the room at Bonnie. "This was technically allowable by your rules."

Caroline had the briefest moment to wonder what he meant by this and what rule he had been alluding to before Klaus reared back his head and bit Caroline forcefully on the neck.


	15. Life

Thanks for reading to one and all.

I was so freaked when Klaus bit Caroline two episodes ago, because I knew that was where I left this off and that they were going to do a phenomenal job with them and TVD didn't disappoint! I hope I don't either. Here it is. The last chapter with just an epilogue after. BTW Forwood breaking up, was I the only one crying and rejoicing at the same time?

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The Wayward Future

Chapter 15: Life

The sharp pain at her neck burned red-hot and spread out from its source causing Caroline to feel dizzy and unbalanced on her feet. He hadn't done much more than break the skin at the nape of her throat, but it was enough to let the venom that his hybrid teeth held enter her bloodstream. All of this Caroline felt intensely, but it was the shock of the action that was what Caroline was having trouble accepting. What was Klaus doing? His bite could kill her. Why was he trying to do this? How was this helping anything?

The question was the last thing she thought as the image of Bonnie's surprise disappeared from her eyesight and down she went into one of the twisted dreams she was sick and tired of having, leaving her unable to protest the action that Klaus had so abruptly taken.

At first she knew where she was. She had seen the dining table at the Mikaelson home before Klaus had burned it down, had even gotten to have a nice meal with Rebekah and Elijah there one night, but she couldn't figure out why she was sitting down at it or how she had gotten there. The whole place smelled like rust and was filling her with serious doubt that she was safe where she was. And why was she alone there? She should have seen at least one of the Originals by now, but all there seemed to be was vast amounts of blood spilled everywhere. It soaked the upholstery of the chairs and was dripping down the walls. When Caroline went to get up from the table she kicked a corpse. It was snow-white from the lack of blood in its system. She wasn't sure who it was, but she was sure they were gone for good. She tried not to gag at the sight. She had to remember that this was just… But already she had forgotten whatever it was her mind was telling her about this place. The blood lust was trying to take over, leaving her with very little room to think clearly.

"Hello?" Her own voice scared her as it echoed through the large house. She slumped at the lack of answer she received.

"Great, I'm alone in the house I detest more than anything." She rolled her eyes at her own thought and pushed past the wasted body. That had been a dramatic outburst, even for her. She surely didn't hate the place. She had fond memories of Rebekah here, not to mention an interesting afternoon of watching Elijah watch American football while she pretended to be picking out material for Prom decorations.

She walked for a short while toward the exit, following a line of dead and drained townspeople, but found she couldn't remember where the door had once been. She ended up at the staircase instead, which was mercifully clean. She kicked off her shoes and headed up the stairs straight for Klaus' room like it was something she did every day. Maybe she could think more clearly up were there was no bloodshed.

The bed in Klaus' room was surprisingly occupied by the Hybrid when she entered and she found that she was not at all happy about this turn of events. Even if it was less messy than what had been downstairs.

"Come join me." He smirked up at her, his voice rich with excitement that she had arrived.

"No," Caroline scoffed at him and crossed her arms across her chest. "What the hell would I do that for?"

Though the words had a sense of logic to them, Caroline was not feeling their effect. Had she not spent several nights now in bed with him? Why was she suddenly against the idea of being with him when she finally understood the feelings she was having toward him?

His eyes held hers more sternly and they adjusted simultaneously with his next words.

"Come here now."

Caroline raised a perfect eyebrow at him as she recognized the eye trickery and undid her arms so she could point judgment at him. "Did you just try to compel me to you? Are you serious right now?"

It was like an alarm had gone off and something opened up in her mind. It was a possibility, a very likely one that this was not the first time Klaus had tried to compel her; just the first time it was unsuccessful.

"Caroline," Klaus said rising from the bed and making his way toward her.

"Have you..." Caroline started breathlessly as the idea took hold in her mind. "Have you been compelling me?"

Caroline tried to think back to a few months ago. When had she stopped taking vervain? Was it recent? Was it something she'd been compelled to assume she was doing, but never actually ingesting?

She stopped herself and shook out all the questions from her mind. She knew Klaus better than that. She had spoken to Stefan about it, about how sure she was of his innocence in at least that area with her. It was impossible to think that he had been the one slowly making her consider him as a lover. He couldn't have had the control that she was implying.

Although it did add up to how she had been so against him and then just suddenly sleeping with him.

"You think you would have even considered me?" Klaus broke into her thoughts growling with anger. "Had I not been compelling you, you would still want your little Lockwood boy at your side and wouldn't even bat an eyelash at my attempts. Your stubbornness wouldn't have let me anywhere near you and you know it!"

Caroline smacked into the door frame behind her. She hadn't even realized she had moved back until she felt the wall reverberate from behind. She used it to steady herself as she took in the prospect that she'd been used. Every thought she'd had about Klaus up to this point was contaminated by his ability to have power over her thoughts.

"You don't really love me; you can't even be compelled to love me, because you don't know how to love someone. People think I'm a murderous bastard, because I have passion for it, for life and its destruction, but I put everything in and invested all my feelings on you and you can't even return a splinter of that love without it being forced from you. What's wrong with you, Caroline? Can you not feel correctly? Do you just throw yourself at anyone who gives you attention?"

There was lightness inside of Caroline that started to make her feel better even as she let the words sink into her mind. The very contradiction of this feeling and his words was making Caroline wonder if any of this was real.

There was no reason to feel upset by Klaus' words. Caroline could decipher how he was over exaggerating and hypocritical of his own words and actions. It wasn't really the sort of thing Caroline would have crumpled under the pressure of, and yet something about what he was saying was forcing her into a tight ball that was holding her back from responding to his attacks. She wanted to get up and call him out on his remarks, but found herself crushed by her lack of self-esteem and confidence.

That notion did not sit right with her at all. She was Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls, and she'd be damned if she let anyone try to take her down.

With that commanding thought, her eyes burst open to the reality that her bite had kept her from.

Klaus set Caroline down on the floor as he kept his eyes on the Bennett witch. He could feel that she was bursting with a new energy that reeked of a strong power within her and that made him much more cautious of what the Witch _thought_ she could do to him. He was not unaware of her skill with a spell having relied on her craft before, but his intimidation usually had her cowering to make a move. This seemed to be exactly the effect he was having on her as she froze to the spot, staring at Caroline's slack body on the ground.

"What did you do?" Bonnie whimpered out, keeping her shoulders square, but letting her eyes betray her worry.

"You know for someone who thought she could get away with having me be her little puppet, you'd think you'd be more worried about what I am going to do to you and less about what I've done to her." Klaus stayed behind Caroline, but stiffened his stance to make him seem larger in contrast to the burning fire in the center of the room. It cast his shadow on the wall behind him which in turn gave a better size to his menacing stature. "But since you've asked, I've killed her, Mother. That is, if you continue with your flower there."

Bonnie's eyebrows shot up with the maternal word and lowered with a grin that was nearly a replica of Klaus'. "So you know, my Son, who is really the force behind all this toil."

"As if the young witch could do this on her own. No, I knew someone had to be the real source of power here and who else was so close to this witch's line?"

"I know you're not going to kill her, Klaus." Esther changed the subject quickly to distract Klaus. She tried to regain the control she had felt while doing the spell before, she was determined to continue it. "I've seen inside your mind, remember? She is still my little bargaining tool whether she is healthy or not."

"But you see that is where your diabolical plan fails. If you cure me and thus all of my creations, as well as my siblings, then you leave me no way to save Caroline. I won't be able to feed her the Hybrid blood that would save her from the deterioration into madness." Klaus crossed his hands behind him and smirked. "Make no assumption otherwise, I am more than willing to save her, but you had better make a choice first. Give me the flower and leave, or see the destruction of all the lives your little plan was meant to save."

"And if I cure you all, then she won't be poisoned anymore by the venom in her system. It won't affect her like it is now." Esther shot back. She held the flower in her hands closer to her chest.

"You're assuming, of course, that the poison will transform along with her body, healing her as well as changing her." He paused and raised his eyebrows as he tipped his head at her, emphasizing that he had a point. He even rocked lightly on his feet as he talked to show how he lacked worry for what he was saying. "Are you so sure that her becoming human won't just kill her faster? She could still be poisoned by how much of it has already ravaged her system. Her kidneys could be gone, her mind weak. It may leave her in such a state that she doesn't even remember who she is or just leave her dead. And that will not make me very happy, human or otherwise."

Esther glared at him, not seeing much option at this point. She pulled a petal from the flower in her hands and as his eyes darted to Caroline. Hopefully the fire was still connected to the bloom and its petals were full of its needed strength.

"Do you see this white flower in my hand, how it's diaphanous against the fires light, but solid in the dark. How it glows when I hold it. This flower is purity in all of its true form. I have looked for this ever since I saw the opportunity to enter the Bennett witch's body. I could give my children back there human lives that I stole from them. Let them live and die as they ought to have once." Esther's eyes smiled as she told her story. She seemed all too excited to finally tell someone what she had planned. "I needed you to find it, because you're indestructible physically and that gave me a huge advantage over the inhuman whereabouts that not even a witch could enter. You may have thought you were rounding up your true Father's bloodline trying to become the Alpha male, but really you were doing a job for me. You were finding out which one of those packs had the bloodline to unlock the place where this was hidden. It's written that the Original werewolves' line would be used to hide the cure for all vampires. Even when you were making up stories about the ties between the two creatures you still had the basics right."

"A little blood from both creatures, a little magic paste on a cave wall and some magic words, and you had this for me without even knowing what you had in your own hands. Do you remember that now, all the labor you had to go through to get it out of that death trap? I'm assuming you are slowly getting back all the memories of how I had you under my spell. I could have turned you then and watched all those people slowly come back without anyone the wiser of what happened. I was planning that the night of their Prom. Unfortunately you attracted Hunters along the way and brought them back here. How they ever got Wolves on their side, I don't know, but that was easy enough to stop once I realized all they wanted was our family. I still can't believe they were actually convinced they killed you. They obviously didn't know what they were dealing with. Now they think Rebekah is in Russia and they've flocked there, well, what little of the group that remains anyway after your little killing spree. That certainly wasn't me controlling you then. I bet you didn't tell Caroline about that, did you?"

Esther's fire was now smaller in size as she talked. Whatever she had done to awaken the power within the flower was already done, leaving Klaus with very little room to stop Esther from using it. She had wasted enough time that it had gained its strength without her magically keeping up the connection.

The question on Klaus' mind was how he could get Caroline to believe him that killing her friend was the only option, a crucial sacrifice, as the need to do so seem to grow more with the time that was passing and Caroline was still unconscious. He doubted that she'd accept his plan of action as a wise one and wished deep down he wasn't so willing to play by her rules. This would all be done with if he could just kill the witch that his mother was using to destroy his power.

"What makes you think I'm going to let you turn anyone else with that flower? I'll just end your connection with the Bennett witch." Klaus threatened.

"Then what will Caroline think of you? You really think after all she has forgiven you for that she'll forgive you killing one of her best friends now? What's that saying about the camel's back and the hair, or was it a straw?" Esther stood her ground against Klaus, not backing down from his words.

"You're not strong enough to hold me off and I believe I hear my sister waking up now in her cage. It wasn't fastened very well against her. She'll be able to break out of it with very little effort. Had I been in control when I locked her in there, I would have at least coated the bars with vervain or subdue her with a dagger. Seems you'll be at even worse odds, two against one. You see, I am holding back for Caroline's sake. Let us see how your daughter feels about this life choice you are once again making for her."

"The ancestors will keep her busy if she does not want it." Esther replied coolly and waving her free hand at her surroundings where Bonnie's ancestors spirits lived.

"I don't think they will. Or else, why aren't they here now, I wonder? Why aren't they stopping me? Why isn't the Bennett witch's own line here to help you?" Klaus speculated as he unfolded his hands from behind him. He wanted his chance to attack to seem a complete surprise, but needed to move quickly. "I think the lot of them aren't happy with you taking over her body."

Esther's eyes adjusted toward the ceiling in just enough time that Klaus was able to cross the room, take the flower from her hand, and throw Bonnie's body against the wall, leaving her unconscious. The fire in the room went out with her.

Klaus made his own blaze as he set the pool of Original blood on the floor to flame with a quick flick of a match, making sure it was no longer useful to anyone. Not that they could use it to cure him now. Klaus possessed the flower and he was determined to destroy it once he figured out how.

With the cure in hand, he made his way back to Caroline and fed her his blood to purify her of the venom that was coursing through her. She was looking worse than she ever had from a bite; she hadn't even come out of her sleep since he bit her, though her eyes had opened. His bite was clearly stronger than he had assumed. This left Klaus stranded for a moment as he considered waiting with her until she awoke safely.

Then Bonnie stirred.

"That won't keep me out, my Son." The soft voice called from the now rising body. "I can heal this body much more quickly than you can get away."

"Then I'll just have to kill it." Klaus growled and had Esther by the throat. He took the still bleeding wrist on his right arm and put it to Bonnie's mouth before snapping her neck clean. She collapsed to the ground and landed just so he could see how the neck severed completely without the skin of the neck even being broken. It was the work of someone with a long history for killing.

"No," a faint voice called from the other side of the room as Caroline watched her friend slump to the ground and her head loll to the side freely.

"Caroline," Klaus went to her side as he heard her objection. She didn't reach for him, but instead fell forward toward Bonnie's body. "Let me help you up."

"Get away from me." Caroline's voice sputtered as she pushed herself to Bonnie's side, clawing across the floor, and saw the blood on her friend's lip. "You turned her. How could you turn her?" Her eyes flashed back to his with anger boiling within her veins. Between being bit and seeing her friend's death she was starting to feel her old mindset toward Klaus returning and it was not boding well for him.

"We have the flower, Love. I can cure her." Klaus tried to sound like this had been his plan all along. He had acted out of hope that not fully killing her friend would redeem him somehow and had only thought of the cure to help his situation once it was in his possession. A happy coincidence, as they say.

Caroline's eyes rose to meet his, but looked past at the staircase behind him. Rebekah had appeared, but there was something fiercely wrong with her and the way she moved. It was like she was trying too hard to be herself. She lacked the luster of her ability to be someone disconnected from caring, and yet, clearly upset by her conditions. She was still wearing large metal bracelets that had once chained her down as she walked over to Bonnie.

Interestingly enough, it reminded Caroline very much of how Bonnie had been acting a few months ago. Her attempting to seem like herself instead of just being normal, it confused Caroline profusely.

"Who got to do that, and why wasn't it me?" Rebekah evoked a semblance of herself, but it wasn't enough for Klaus to believe it. Not after having been fooled once before by his mother in his sister's body.

"Found another form to take, I see." Klaus stood slowly, but kept his hand firmly on the flower that would undo him.

Rebekah turned an unimpressed look toward Klaus and answered him. "No fooling you, is there?"

"What?" Caroline asked from the floor. "Who is in Rebekah?"

"My mother," Klaus answered her, but his eyes never moved away from the girl in front of him. "She had previously inhabited Bonnie until I killed her. Now it seems she is falling back on old traits."

"With one exception, my dear boy, the ancestor's are no longer happy with you. You've effectively ended their physical line and they don't seem to agree with your actions. They like my plan." As the words came out of Rebekah's mouth, Klaus could feel the grip of hands taking his arms and legs to hold him. He pulled himself away, but to no avail. The hands simply gripped harder and a painful popping sensation started at the back of his head, enabling him from trying to fight further. It took all his control just to stay conscious.

Caroline watched him with confusion as she wondered why he was no longer moving, but falling helplessly to the floor.

"Klaus?" Her voice was innocent as she murmured his name, but she found she couldn't move any closer to him when she tried, something was keeping her back from him.

Esther grabbed the flower from where Klaus had dropped it on the floor and pulled a few petals from one side of it.

"Now I can complete this flowers purpose." Esther spoke and shoved the flower fully into Klaus' mouth and clamped his mouth shut over it. When she was sure it'd been absorbed into his body, she stepped back and put the free petals she had ripped off the bloom into her jeans pocket and was off without a second look back at those still left.

No, this wasn't possible. That flower couldn't have been a cure, it couldn't have been so easy to feed Klaus, and he couldn't be human.

Whatever was keeping her away now allowed Caroline to move and she found herself pulling Klaus onto her lap as he tossed and turned, convulsing like a child who'd been caught in a tickle fight with the lack of smile upon his face. She gasped as he turned on his side and seemed to be trying to pull air into his lungs. He did this several times before falling unconscious, seeming to finally be free of any pain.

Caroline panicked and tried to wake him up, but as he lay lifeless, she felt herself becoming weaker. No, she needed to remain awake to see if he was okay. She needed to see if the flower was effective. She needed to know if she too was affected, but her mind was fighting her too much and started to drain her strength. She was unable to hold him up any longer and collapsed backward onto the basement floor a second time.

Caroline woke up on her bed in her own room, she was thirsty and hungry, but she was surprisingly not so hungry that she would want to tear into an artery. In fact, the idea seemed to sicken her stomach even worse. That was not a good sign. That meant that she was not craving blood, that she no longer had a need for it. That she was without the ability she was now accustomed too.

She pulled herself up and over to the side of her bed, but as she stood she found that her legs didn't immediately hold her and she fell back into the bed with a loud Humph.

Her mother came bursting through the door and threw her arms around her like she hadn't seen her in months.

"Mom, mom. I can't breathe." Caroline laughed and then stopped at her joke. She really couldn't breathe. Her mother was holding her too tightly and was restricting her airway which would have seemed normal, if she's supposed to be able to breathe. Her mind reeled at the thought. That meant that Klaus was human, that all of her friends were human. That vampires were gone, although she couldn't speak for Rebekah, Kol, or Elijah.

"I'm just so glad you are alive!" Sheriff Forbes exclaimed as she pulled back from her daughter and mentioned something about getting her water.

If only Caroline could share in the same excitement.

When she returned, Liz told her daughter about how she had gotten a call from Bonnie and how Bonnie, seemingly unscathed, was claiming that Caroline was human again. Bonnie had no idea how she had gotten to the house or what had gone on, only that Klaus had awoken her. Bonnie learned of her sudden return from the grave as a sign of being cured from vampirism and that Caroline was affected as well before he vanished off into the night.

Caroline wondered how Bonnie had taken the news of nearly becoming a vampire, but she was more interested in where Klaus had gone and why he hadn't seemed to check in on her yet. It was unlike him; at least she thought it was. He'd left her a note the last time he had run off and there wasn't one now. That was a clear sign he was still nearby, wasn't it?

"And I guess that last little test proves it." Liz supposed to her daughter, tilting her head in the direction of the glass Caroline had just taken a large mouthful from. "That's full of vervain and you didn't even flinch."

Caroline looked down at the glass and shrugged. She already knew. She could feel it. Everything was harder to do: sit up, drink, and breathe. All her normal functions took a little extra effort than it had before. It was going to take some getting used to, again.

"No sign of Klaus?" Caroline asked curiously. Her mother still didn't know of their affair and she didn't want to alert her of it, even now. "I mean he hasn't tried anything?"

"Nothing I am aware of. The town has been quiet. I didn't even know you were involved in anything until the phone call from Bonnie." Liz explained and smiled at her daughter.

Caroline smiled back.

"I think I'm going to go out, see if everyone else is alright." She lied to her mother. Caroline had set her determination on high and made herself get up from her bed to get dressed and cleaned to go looking for Klaus. She was convinced he hadn't gone far and that was enough to make her wonder where he was.

As Caroline moved to get ready, she was unnerved by how slowly she moved now. It took her forever just to get into the shower. Then there was the problem of her car being out at a hotel outside of town. She broke down eventually and had her mom drive her since vamp running was out of the question and she needed to check the hotel for Klaus anyways.

Caroline spent the rest of the day looking everywhere and finding nothing. Surely Klaus wouldn't just leave her. Why would he suddenly disappear now, especially now that he was human again?

Well, there was the fact that this left him vulnerable and that several people in town were waiting for the right moment to kill him, but didn't that kind of feel useless now that they were human as well? It was kind of even on that plane now. They got back their lives and he was now forced to live as a human, grow weak, and die off. It seemed a punishment fit for him.

But no matter how hard Caroline searched, she never once found a trace of him. There was no promise of his return to her, or of her ever seeing him again. He was gone. He was just gone.


End file.
